It took seven hours to get to Paris, door to door, yesterday. The Eurostar would have been so much better. We were picked up at noon, it took 1.5 hours to get to Heathrow because of traffic, our flight was delayed (someone missed the flight and the airline had trouble finding their suitcase to remove it from the plane), and it took 1.45 hours to get from Charles de Gaulle airport to our hotel because of traffic. The "taxi" charged way too much because it wasn't a real taxi. We knew better, we knew it while we followed him to his car and we knew it getting in, but for some reason we let it happen. The good news is that tomorrow we have a shuttle picking us up and it is one-quarter the cost of the taxi.

The hotel recommended a nice little restaurant for dinner. I had a list of some that were a little bit further away, but it was late and we were tired. Le Volcan was perfect, and our waiter was delightful, so we were happy. We walked a little after dinner.

We had a full day in Paris today, despite a very problematic knee. It has bothered me the entire time in London, but more as an annoyance than anything else. This morning, however, was different. I'm not sure if it was because of hauling my suitcase and heavy carry-on bag, or the very inadequate leg room on the plane, or a combination of the two, but I was a limping mess. It didn't stop me, however, it only slowed us down.

First we had to stop for coffee and croissants.

Then we walked to the Louvre.

Close-up of an outside section of the Louvre

We took in as much as we could in the short time we had allotted.

Botticelli

Fra Angelico, The Coronation of the Virgin, circa 1430-1432

Close-up of the ceiling in the Grand Salon Carré

Madness around the Mona Lisa

Barnaba da Modena, The Virgin and the Infant, circa 1370-1375

Eugene Delacroix, Young Orphan Girl in the Cemetery

Giuseppe Castiglione, View of the Large Salon Carré in the Louvre

Detail of the above. Note this is a painting of the room I photographed (see 4 photos above).

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, An Odalisque, 1814

Auguste Renoir, The Lecture

Frans Hals, Jester with a Lute, circa 1623-1624

I know Gord could have stayed all day, but he graciously acquiesced to my request that we also visit the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. We left the Louvre accidentally via an underground shopping mall. We initially thought it was an immense museum shop, but the Apple store made us realize we were wrong. We eventually found our way out to the rue de Rivoli. And to Angelina's for lunch and the all-important chocolat chaud.

It was a beautiful day, sunny and in the 50s, and I took quite a few photos on the walk to the second museum.

Installing cobblestones

A pair of knockers

The Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris was good, although there was confusion when we tried unsuccessfully to enter through an exit, then had to go back outside and climb even more stairs, only to climb down another set of stairs to end up at the exit through which we had tried to enter. Maybe I was just grumpy because of my knee, but I didn't see the point in this. It wouldn't have been so bad if there hadn't been a number of other stairs throughout the visit and if we hadn't already walked a couple of miles and if we hadn't seen the guard let other people in that way.

Matisse

David Altmejd, Les Noix, 2014

Auguste Herbin, Femmes et enfants, 1914

Robert Delauney, Tour Eiffel, 1926 

Louise Bourgeois, Spider, 1995

We got another recommendation for dinner from our hotel, and it was good (and, more importantly, it was a short walk). This was my starter dish. How else would you serve Rillettes de sardines maison except in a sardine tin?

We have to get up early tomorrow to be ready for our 7 AM shuttle pick-up. I'll try to get this posted so that I can get to bed at a decent hour. Our visit to Paris was too short. I love this city.

I still have one final entry before I can put this blog to bed. I doubt I'll be able to do it tomorrow, but probably on Sunday.


Update: One of the boxes (the box of books) we shipped on Monday arrived in Saratoga safely on Wednesday. The box of clothes didn't, at least not yet. It was late leaving the UK because it was awaiting clearing agency review, but it left on Tuesday and got as far as Louisville, Kentucky. It was still in Louisville today due to an agricultural hold. The only thing I can think of that would fall under agricultural would be the unlabeled jar of jasmine pearls that I threw in there at the last minute. This was tea I brought with me from home in August. At any rate, I'm guessing they've opened the box and have gone through everything in it. Hopefully it will all work out and we will receive the package anon, with or without the jasmine pearls.