Paris 2019 Day Seven

Anna suggested that we book a tour of the Louvre with a lively English woman named Kate Chartier who provides guided tours of the history of art. Kate is a trained art historian and academic-style portrait painter who lives in Paris with her husband. She was wonderful: arranged a wheelchair for SKT and whizzed around the place, in and out of little elevators like she lived there. She was courteously assertive and moved us right to the front of large groups of Chinese tourists We had earphones and she had a mic, so it really was remarkable. Museums can be so daunting but this two-and-one-half-hour experience flew by without tired feet or museum back. Anna also suggested a small bistro called Le Rubis for lunch; it was filled with locals and no English was spoken, but the food was very good! We split up with SKT and AW and headed to the Avenue de l'Opéra for a quick look in Monoprix. At the Opera, we headed back down the Rue de la Paix past all the posh shops and hotels to the Place Vendôme. The Metro took us to Châtelet for a walk to the Marché aux fleurs, Notre-Dame, and the Shakespeare and Company Book Shop in the Quartier Latin. We walked home along the Rue Monge and stopped at Aux Merveilleux de Fred where we purchased six merveillieux: meringues filled with whipped cream and rolled in shaved chocolate. These were for a birthday celebration later. After resting at home for a few minutes, we walked to the Rue Mouffetard for crêpes and gelato. Back at the flat we celebrated my 73rd with merveillieux and some chocolate studded bread.

 Kate with our troops

 I showed this painting of Louis XIV by Hyacinthe Rigaud in my 

design history classes for years

 The view up the axis of Paris from the Louvre

 Venus de Milo

 Winged Victory of Samothrace

 China's millions of middle-class folks are traveling!

All Leonardo's subjects have the same face and Kate thinks they

are self portraits of Leonardo

One tiny painting in this huge mob of tourists

Using SKT's wheelchair, the six of us were able to push and 

wheel right up to the Mona Lisa and practically 

stick our noses in the painting

 Kate speaking into our earpieces

 Rod taking in the huge painting of Théodore Géricault's 

Raft of the Medusa 

 Le Rubis

 Lunch

 Encore de lunch

 People hate it when I take pictures of them eating

 Monoprix for well-priced stuff

We will wait  to eat at Pret in London, but I have

serious Pret envy

 Garnier's Opera

 Place Vendôme.

 A run-by fruiting at Notre Dame

 Who cares about a ruddy bookshop when there

is a Wallace Fountain out front (OK, so maybe I have

a little obsession with Les Fontaines Wallace)

 View of Notre Dame from the Rue de Fouarre in the 

Quartier Latin

 Aux Merveilleux de Fred in the Rue Monge

 Rolling the merveilleux in chocolate

 Soft little pillows of meringue and cream

 Fleurs on the Rue Monge

  Our favorite crêpes

Happy birthday!

A very nice day with more to follow tomorrow. Thats all for now.

OXO

D.