July 29 - Paris

Museé Marmottan-Claude Monet

A delightful day, no rain, sunny, a bit cool, but great for touring

We were greeted with NO HOT WATER this morning, which was not TRES BON! I, being tougher and more considerate of others did what I could under an ice cold shower. Hardly the end of the world, but burrrrr! By the time we got back in the late PM it was scalding again. Apparently the 1000 rooms in the hotel were without hot water all morning.

Palais de Tokyo contemporary art

We started out with quite a walk (about 3K) out of central Paris along a park and horse riding trail to the Museé Marmottan-Claude Monet. The vast majority of the art here is by Claude Monet and some of his own personal collection. I’d say this is my favourite of the museums I’ve visited in Paris. One reason is the art, but another is that it is small and quiet – there aren’t many visitors here and there certainly isn’t a line-up to get in. There was a group of about 12 pre-schoolers here learning about Monet – very cool! Unfortunately no photos were allowed.

Palais de Tokyo contemporary art

Our hotel is partnering with the Palais de Tokyo – a museum housing 21^st century art, very ‘out-there’. One part of the museum was boats on an indoor lake. You could ‘sail’ through one of the exhibits. The pictures say it all really…there is no Monet’s Water Lilies here – WOW. While definitely not our cup-of-tea, there are things I like seeing. This was near the Eiffel Tower, so we got to see that again.

Palais de Tokyo contemporary art

Palais de Tokyo contemporary art

A salad, pizza and wine for lunch let us catch our breath before heading to the business area of downtown. La Défence is the visual attraction of the area, it can be seen from the Arc de Tripomph. It is a huge hollow cube. We took the Metro there and back.

A little shopping and a happy hour cocktail ends our afternoon.

Mussels and fries are for dinner followed by one last pint at our local.