Hello Everyone!
Today mom and I decided to give ourselves a little break and take an Uber to Musee L'Orangerie but the universe had other plans and our Uber mistakenly drove us to the Louvre instead. We realized after we had gotten out of the car and the Uber had driven away, so it was too late to do anything about it. Paris is kinda funny in that it can take you longer to drive places than to walk. Thankfully we left extra early so we had enough time to walk the half mile through the gardens and still make it to our timed entrance.
Our first museum of the day was Musee L'Orangerie. Monet was specifically commissioned to paint these huge water lilies that took up each of the four walls of the room. If you can believe it, this was not even half of one painting. The idea was to create a space to contemplate and meditate in, so you had to view it in silence, and they had attendants actually enforcing said rule.
An entire floor of the museum was under construction so we finished walking the rooms much earlier than anticipated and enjoyed a coffee and ice cream in the park before heading off to Musee D'Orsay. Fun fact, the museum actually was the Orsay train station from 1900-1970s. After the station was abandoned, the government turned it into a museum in 1986.
The train station also housed a hotel and grand reception room. The latter of which was converted into a children's play area! For obvious privacy reasons I didn't take a picture of all the kids play stations and toys, but it was literally swarmed by children below the frame of my photo. This is probably the fanciest playroom ever!
Mom and I enjoyed ourselves for a few hours before heading off to our next destination, Notre Dame. As you can see below, part of it is still very much under construction. I had the good fortune to see it myself ten or so years ago but mom and never been and really wanted to cross this off her list. The line was absolutely insane and wrapped around the entire courtyard. So I gave mom a few euros and told her to ask the ticket counter if she could just light a few candles in the church. Guess what? My plan worked! Mom got to go inside and see the remaining interior. She even said herself that she would have been really disappointed if we had waited hours for this because they had removed most of the artwork and decorations during and after the fire. She also said she lit three candles, much to my relief! I'm not about to get any bad luck from lying about lighting church candles! I simply omitted that she'd peek around the rest of the building after she prayed.
We decided to walk back to our hotel since it was less than a mile away and would take less time than driving in a taxi. This was a great call because we stumbled upon the cutest crepe place for a pre-dinner snack. I don't know how these Frenchwomen do it! We had a dinner scheduled at 9 pm and I was starving by 6 pm. As you can see I was very excited for the crepes and mom and I split a savory and sweet. The tomato and onion confit was homemade and absolutely delicious! I think I might even try making this crepe combo at home. And by me, I really mean my Frenchie best friends who already make me crepes for dinner.
We rested a bit before heading to dinner with my dad's cousin and his family. It was crazy to find out that I actually have relatives here in Paris. The dinner was perfectly lovely and I had. the best time playing with their daughter. I think kids easily get along with me because most of the time I'm just a big kid myself lol. I hope I'm still the same way even when I get super old.
Can't wait to update you tomorrow!
Lots of Love,
Carolyn
Carolyn
No comments:
Post a Comment