Wednesday, May 26
Our last full day in Paris! This was planned as a pot-luck day, whatever anybody wanted to do. No set plans. We started the day by heading to the Monet Museum on the West end of Paris. It took us a moment to get our bearings, but we soon made the walk there. It was nice to be in an unassuming, uncrowded museum. We enjoyed the paintings in the basement, observing how his paintings looked so different from afar than they did up close. We completed the short tour, and headed back to the metro, stopping for some "pain au chocolate", or chocolate croissants. We next headed for Les Invalides.
We toured Napoleon's tomb, and then the girls split to do some shopping back near St. Lazare. Bill and I stayed (an understatement) and toured the entire Army Museum, which is huge. The best part was probably the World War II exhibit area, which gives one an interesting, and different, perspective how different parts of the world view the war. We split the tour by eating lunch outside the museum at a crepery.
By the time we left in late afternoon, it had been raining and we were exhausted. But we're not done! We go towards the Rodin museum, which we heard was closed, but discover it's open. We opt for the gardens-only ticket (Paris' best bargain at 1 euro), and tour the expansive gardens with the many statues, featuring The Thinker, The Gates of Hell, and The Burghers of Calais. We only spent an hour there, but it was great. We headed back to the hotel, where we met up with the girls who ended up not doing much shopping.
We decided to do a really nice dinner for our last night out, and dined at a restaurant Bill and I had scouted out at the end of our street. We were the first in the restaurant, and were treated to a great meal, both from a food and an atmosphere standpoint. The wine was sensational. We spent more than 2 hours there, then headed to Montmartre. We visited the area around the Moulin Rouge, which is a strange place to take one's daughter. We finished up at the Sacre Coeur with great vistas of Paris at night. Finally we made it back to the hotel to polish off the chocolate cake that we had gotten in Chartres. Another great day.
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