Paris Respite

We have just had 5 days in Paris. between tours Many years ago in St Clair, we met what is now our dear friends Jacque and Anny Beltran in Dunedin. This lovely French couple came each year to New Zealand to visit their daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren and stay on Cliffs Rd. Not for the first time they have given us their Apartment in Saint Germain, Paris, while they stay in their Normandy house.  It is absolutely perfect – walk down the stairs and turn left – walk 20 paces and there is the local corner café which is so iconic in Paris.

There were many hours of sleep on the first day.  Then time for tour work each morning, afternoons spent walking firstly in our neighbourhood, the Jardin Luxemburg, the Marais and lastly by catching the No 63 bus past many of Paris’s huge iconic buildings and monuments to the totally amazing Foundation Louis Vuitton to see the Matisse Exhibition. It was Sunday family day !!! many many children were here, not only to be in the gallery but, there were a host of activities and food trucks in the gardens.

After following the Impressionist artists in Cote d Azur and Provence we were keen to see the work of post-impressionist painter Matisse and certainly, we learnt a lot more about his life and work. However, to walk through and around the Foundation Louis Vuttioncultural Centre was so interesting. The building was designed and built by Frank Gehry. It is a masterpiece and every which way you looked, it was a multitude of angles.

Finding a new dining experience each night was fun. It certainly wasn’t the 3 courses we had become so accustomed to in Monrecour and we were more than happy with one plate and usually a salad – although we did find some very tasty octopus. Some of my tour group were in Paris for a couple of nights and we did meet up to eat steak and chips at the famous Realias de l’Entrecote. I stood in the queue while the others enjoyed another wine before they managed to seat 7. It is always the same – a plate of salad and two small plates of steak and chips one after the other with their signature sauce.

The weather deteriorated in the last couple of days and made me want to buy a trench coat, which seemed to be the favourite item of clothing in Paris. Men and women wore them so well. The Parisians are eclectic dressers and from the young to the very old they certainly have style.

With the Olympics now only weeks away Paris is being cleaned up, polished and having a rebirth.  The  Olympic structures are popping up everywhere, roads and bridges are closed, and buses go only so far and then stop when the Olympic preparations disrupt their route. Some Parisians will lose their car parks for weeks on end and locals are scared about the disruption to transport to work. The taxi driver heading to the Garde Lyon on our departure to Venice described the forthcoming Olympics as a chaotic event, costs have skyrocketed from accommodation to food and he thought the whole event was scary and even apocalyptic.

I likened this statue to how the Parisians are moving towards the world’s famous Olympic Games and must get in behind it.