Sabbatical Day 18: An art museum in Paris, finally. But also the Champs Elysee, the Arc de Tromphe, and the Eiffel Tower…

We left our hotel early this morning and walked about 15 minutes to the Musee d’Orsay. This is a smaller museum but it has a lovely collection of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings: Cezanne, Monet, Manet, Renoir, Degas, Van Gogh, and many others. We didn’t have tickets, the app kept refusing our credit card for some odd reason (we’ve used it every where else). But getting in was no problem. And we were early enough that the exhibits were not overly crowded, at least at first. I stood in the rooms with paintings from artists I have studied and admired all my life. My eyes welled with tears. I’ve only been this moved a couple of times on this trip: the moment I stood in the ruins of the nunnery garden on Iona, the moment in St. Paul’s Cathedral in London when the priest invited us to sit down and pause for 2 minuets in silence and then he said a few prayers for the world. And then in several rooms at the Musee d’Orsay and the great art that I was present too. I also cried a bit when I was stuck in the Charles de Gaulle airport and couldn’t get out and couldn’t find my husband and was pushed through security again, for no reason, and then had my luggage searched. But that was awful. These others were awe. Absolute awe. 

We only spent about two hours in the Musee d’Orsay. But it was enough. I was completely saturated with beauty and I couldn’t take in any more.

From there we walked through the Touilleries  Gardens and then toward the Champs Elysee and the Arc de Tromphe. It was a long walk up hill, with extremely high end shops all around us. By the time we reached the Arc de Tromphe we were beat. Days and days of a lot of walking have taken their toll on my feet and my energy and Dan’s too. But despite that we trudged on to the Eiffel Tower.  And, along the way another old church, But, this one had adapted with some very modern additions - the lectern and candles for example. 

I had no illusions of even trying to go up in the tower. I knew it was mobbed, this being the end of a holiday week. I couldn’t even get advanced tickets. And honestly I was done in. It was enough for me to just stand near it and see it in real life and take some photos. It’s quite spectacular. 

We took a taxi back to the hotel and bought ran into a near by Starbucks for an iced tea and iced coffee. Then we returned to our room to nibble on the cheese and meats from our lunch yesterday while we rested our feet. After a bit of a rest we headed out to a nearby post office to mail some packages to our grandkids, just for the fun of having them get something in the mail from Paris. (A t-shirt for each of them). Leaving the post office we headed down a street thinking it would be a simple around the block back to our hotel, but, as is common in Paris, we ended up in a completely different spot and had to use navigation to find our way back. Resting now before we head out for dinner. 

Tomorrow is our 37th wedding anniversary. I plan to look for yarn stores and an effort to purchase some yarn in Paris. And that might be all we do, except sit in cafes, drink coffee, and watch people.