Day 9 - New Years Eve
Welcome to day 9. What a ride so far. This morning we took the Metro to Saint-Germain and had breakfast in a little bistro comprising, what else, chocolate chaud and chocolate croissant. After eating we waited in the longest line so far to get into the Musee D’Orsay. This was truly a highlight.
In no particular order, we were able to see works by Cezanne, Degas, Gauguin, Manet, Matisse, Monet, Renior, Whistler, Klimt, Munch, Rodin and Van Gogh. The Van Goghs are in their own room and are really quite spectacular. To give you a taste of what touring the Musee D’Orsay would be like with us, I’ll include the following snippet of conversation that occurred between Floors 2 and 3:
Brent: My God, there’s a lot of stuff in here. Those Impressionists are fantastic!
Beth: Those were Post-Impressionist.
Brent: Well, what are these then?
Beth: These are Academist. Those are Symbolist.
Brent: I thought these were Naturalist.
Beth: THOSE are Art Nouveau. The Symbolists are over there.
Brent: I want to see the Ecleticist paintings.
Beth: You’ve already seen them.
Brent: Oh. Can I see the Pre-Impressionists?
Beth: No.
What fun! Seriously, there was a lot to see. After seeing all there was to see, we traversed the nearest pont (duh…bridge) to the Ile de la Cite. We walked around the market and the Palais de Justice. We finally made our way to Notre Dame. Brent was happy to be in a church at last where his Catholic god, sorry, God actually lives and he felt right at home. Waves of guilt came over him as it had been quite some time since he last went to confession. It is quite the spectacle – the building -- not the catholic guilt, although that was pretty ugly. Lots of gargoyles and spooky corners. When Beth was kicked out for being an imposter we wandered over to the Ile de St. Louis for some chocolate chaud. The day had now turned pretty cold and miserable, so the hot chocolate was really for warming purposes and not for gluttonous purposes like all the previous eating we have described.
We made our way back to the hotel. We were really starting to feel tired after all that eating and walking. Nine days of non-stop walking/eating will catch up with you, especially when one of us is not as young as he used to be. Perhaps we’re underselling the state we were in. Sore backs, heavy limbs … we were in trouble. Seeing the major sites of 2 European capitals was turning into a death march.
But, this was now the moment of truth…were we too tired to go out for New Years Eve? We had intended to go to the Eiffel Tower where all the fireworks are, but our motivation was waning. We made one last valiant effort to go out and partake in the fun at 10pm, but it was pouring rain and freezing cold, so we got a delicious crepe from one of the street vendors, bought ourselves a bottle of champagne and retired to our room. Who are we kidding anyway? We are devastatingly boring on New Years in Canada, why would we be any different in Paris?!!
