Since the day after my arrival in The Netherlands, I've been dealing with an injured knee and after two weeks of walking eight hours a day and tackling all the stairs (no such thing as ADA compliant in Europe), I decided to take today off and give my knee a much needed break. For those of you that know me well, know this was a really tough thing for me to do as I can't imagine sitting in a hotel room when there is so much to explore but I really want to be able to enjoy the day in Normandy at Omaha Beach tomorrow.
So Julie headed out to visit a few museums and other sites on her "must see" list. So, without further ado, here's what Julie's take on Paris...
It is important to find good travel companions. I am lucky to have a superb one. Not only should you like the same type of
places, adventures, hotels, and standards, but you should be good enough
friends to be able to give each other space.
During our adventure, Lesa needed a day to rest her injured
knee to be able to fully enjoy the trip to Normandy and the Omaha Beach
tour. Having had knee troubles and knee
surgery myself I fully understood, so off I went.
One of my favorite artists is Rodin. I saw a copy of The Thinker in the Tate
Museum in London years ago and always wanted to learn more about his work. The Rodin Museum in Paris is just across the
street from the metro—very convenient.
Nice that it is on the Museum Pass and that it is an estate comprised of
two building of his work and gardens with his sculptures scattered
throughout. I learned that many of his
works are a combination of smooth and rough stone. While we are familiar with
many of his works like The Thinker and the Kiss, I was taken by two of his
works that were intertwined hands. 
The
gardens are lovely and provided a lovely nasal cocktail with probably 50 different
rose bushes in full bloom. The café
provided a lovely lunch and scenic outdoor seating to enjoy a quiche and
salad. I particularly like the Edvard
Munch painting of The Thinker.
From the Rodin I took the metro to the Musee de l’Orangerie
which was thankfully less crowded and relatively quite on a Friday mid
morning. The two oval galleries of
Monet’s waterlillies were engulfing.
Sitting in the middle of the room and then slowly turning 360 degrees you
got the sensation of the garden from early morning to sunset. The downstairs gallery had additional Impressionists work. My attention was captivated by the two
cathedral paintings.
Given my love of opera, I next jumped the metro to the Opera
House or Palais Garnier and stood in line to check out the options for the
evening performance. Rameau’s first
opera was playing and they had only a few seats—yes, the best seat in the house
on the front row of the balcony, middle seat—but the price tag was
€180. Lesson learned is to buy
tickets way in advance so that the good but less costly seats will be
available. Walking through the Opera
House was amazing, though I decided to save that tour for the next Paris visit.
Just behind the Palais Garnier is one of the largest
department store in Paris, Galeries
Lafayette, which is quite the experience.
The hotel had provided us a discount coupon and never wanting to pass up
good saving, I ventured forth. Seeing an
information booth inside the front door with maps and guides should have given
me a clue. Taking the elevator to the
first floor, I was in the shoes. Not
only were there thousands of shoes, there were sections (the designer shoes)
where there were black ropes and you had to wait to get into a particular
section to look and try them on. While
I’ve always fancied myself a good shopper, I must admit I was overwhelmed and
decided to exit the store while I still was in one piece as there was potential
for bodily damage in the sale areas. You
know they are serious when they accept over 5 different currencies. That’s some serious shopping.
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