June 17 - Art Museum Day in Paris

It's funny how little things turn out to be memorable events that can define an entire vacatin. As we were walked through the cavernous entrance into the Metro, to catch the train to The Louve, we stumbled upon a street musician playing her violin like a concert virtuoso to Vivaldi's 'The Four Seasons'. The purity of her sound stopped us dead in our tracks as we were stunned to hear, not the usual Jimmy Buffet rendetions so often strummed by aging guitarist you see leaning on a post next to the subway, but music so accoustically refined by the brick walls of the train tunnels that you thought you were at Carnegie Hall. Still, I couldn't resist and said I got 5 Euros if she would play 'Margaritaville'. Her reply was "Get lost creep!".


Our first stop of the day was the Louvre. They say you either spend two weeks or two hours at the Louvre - there is no in-between. We, of course, chose the latter and marched double-time through the entire museum and saw one of the worlds greatest art collection, The only art piece I remember, however, was the Mona Lisa, and the 3,000 tourists standing in fron of it (I exaggerate a bit). It was worth seeing the museum and exhibits but after 2 hours we were done and ready to move on.

The museum I was most looking forward to was the Musee d'Orsay which is just across the river from the Louvre. There, we found probably the best collection of Impressionist art around. We enjoyed this experience very much as we spent the entire afternoon gazing into the eyes of the painted characters, frozen in time by artists such as Van Gogh, Cezanne, Renoir, and Monet. As I gazed upon the pastel landscapes of these great artists, words from Don McLean's 'Vincent' kept creeping into my mind, creating a lovely soundtrack for this journey:

Starry, starry night

Portraits hung in empty halls

frameless heads on nameless walls

with eyes that watch the world and can't forget.

Like the stranger that you've met

the ragged men in ragged clothes

the silver thorn of bloody rose lie crushed and

broken on the virgin snow.

And now I think I know what you tried to say to me

how you suffered for your sanity

how you tried to set them free.

They would not listen they're not list'ning still

perhaps they never will.

Our day was over and it was time to look for dinner. Fran will no longer let me order for both of us because for the last five meals we've had nothing but Grey Poupon mustard. I told her "Sorry, but that is the only french entree I know. Their menus over here are not like the Denny's at home where they actually put pictures of the food right on the page - amazing!" Anyway, she probably had a point. That night we decided to ordered Italian (even though we're going to spend the next 2 1/2 weeks in Italy - we are nuts!!) . It was pretty good but I have to admit, it became the strangest dish I've ever had. I ordered a Calzone and was eating it ravenously when, nearing the end of this scrumptious meal, I cut into the middle of the item and broke open an egg yolk, spreading yellowish goo all over the entire plate. Fran caught my weird expression asked what happened and I told her that I apparently have been eating some kind of alien creature with yellow blood and I think it's still alive. What I ate stayed down however so the meal was a success after all.

That night, our last night in Paris, we purchased two tickets for a cruise down the river Seine. The night was perfect as we floated gently down the river, feeling the cooling air as it caressed our face, enjoying the glittering skyline of Paris and the Eiffel tower, and seeing the happy locals lounging on the banks of the river, while we listened to beautiful french music wafting through the air - I was so romantically moved I nearly kissed Fran. Whew, that was close!!! Afterward we rushed back to our room, excitedly tore off our clothes, jumped into bed - and watched World Cup soccer - can life get any better!