Paris, Day 17

This morning we were planning to go to a lovely little garden in Montmartre which is only open about once a fortnight, but the weather intervened.  Today's  high only reached 14° C and rain.  So, while Virginia did her homework I went for a walk and although it was cold and overcast, it didn't rain. I walked up to the Butte taking a few pictures of doors and of someone leaning out of their window watching the world go by.  Not a bad thing to do in Paris!

Grill

Door

Watching the world go by from a Paris window

There are, of course, always interesting things to see, old windows, store-fronts and people going to and fro about their daily business.

A shop window near rue Lepic

Because of space limitations, many residents of flats have very elaborate "gardens" in their windows.  Some even have full grown trees!

A "garden" in a window

By the time I got back it was lunchtime, so after a baguette we decided to head out.  There is a Manet exhibition opening at the Musee d'Orsay and we wanted to get tickets for it in order to beat the long queues which inevitably greet these special exhibitions. Then it started to rain.  We congratulated ourselves on our wisdom in taking umbrellas but found that the advance ticket office wasn't open on Sunday. So much for being clever.

Crossing the Seine, we walked through Jardin de Tuileries and then all along the Champs-Elysée ducking in and out of the various shops and arcades to avoid the showers.  In the process we ran across some rather interesting sculpture.

How do they do that?

Have you figured it out yet?

We got all the way to the Arc de Triomphe and ducked into the "drugstore" which is a peculiar name for a rather swish shop and restaurant before walking back down the Champs-Elysée to Laduree.  This is a very elegant "salon de the" where we ate macarons and drank tea in absolute eighteen century decadence.

Entrance to Laduree

Inside Laduree

Those Macarons

Then it was home to something a little less elegant, chores, shopping, cleaning, ironing and getting ready for the working week ahead.  Virginia's attendance at French classes three afternoons a week has both its advantages and disadvantages.  On the one hand, it imposes a structure on our week and allows me to do some academic work, but on the other it limits our time to sightsee and enjoy the man wonders of Paris and its environs..