No Matisse for you!

Today, we got on the tour bus that rides around the city in 4 different loops to see some of the city that would be too far to walk to get to see.

We saw some things we'd already seen.

And some new stuff too.



And while I wanted to take us to Moulin Rouge, all C-man wanted to do was go to Musee D'Orsay to see the French impressionists, and some paintings by Matisse.

It was pretty amazing, though. We all agreed seeing water lilies and poppies and a little starry night was way more impressive than even the Louvre. I think the Louvre is just too intimidating. Anyhow, we even broke the rules and even took a couple of pictures. (The scandal!) Until we got yelled at. But whatever.

 
But there were no Matisse paintings here either. None in France at all, for that matter. The museum has loaned them to a museum in Brasilia. C-man was not pleased - at all. But, as with all things in Paris, they seem to be fixed with some delicious food. Beerman's lunch, for example...

And C-man's croque monsieur...

And Beerman's snails, for those of you into that type of thing. (I didn't photograph the Nutella crepe or creme caramel or creme brulee because we were too busy gorging ourselves to be bothered with something as petty as a photo.)

We even joked about C-man having a big beer (He didn't actually drink this!) because last night I ordered him an apple drink that ended up being cider. As in the fermented kind. He refused to drink that, too. (We laughed, because we're certain this will come up later in life that his mom bought him his first drink and he turned it down.)

But it was the end of a lovely day. So we took C-man's favorite mode of transportation home (the Metro) and got ready to head out in the morning.

I think the stereotype of the rude Parisian is highly undeserved. We've found nothing but pleasantness and helpfulness absolutely everywhere we have gone. People have spoken English to us even when we hadn't asked for it. The metro works well, although are not really up to Japanese standards. (But really, whose are?) The downsides have been that the lines everywhere are atrocious, (We've jokingly mocked the City of Lights moniker and renamed it the City of Lines. 30 minutes to use a bathroom, 45 minutes to get in somewhere, 1 hour somewhere else.) most bathrooms are disgustingly dirty in spite of having to pay for some of them and having attendants in others, the weather has pretty much sucked, and there are some pushy pickpockets near the big attractions with no police to be found.

But overall, we've had a really lovely time here. C-man has caught the travel bug - He's been discussing where our next trip will be while we're on this one. And we've learned quite a bit. I'd say this leg has been a pretty nice success.

Next stop, Istanbul not Constantinople.