The Harrises headed off early to Disneyland. After a slow start to the morning, we headed out to Musee d'Orsay. This former railway station is a magnificent building and works well as a museum. A new exhibition had opened today - Masculin Masculine. While not the same as a recent controversial exhibition in Vienna, it has a similar theme; the male nude in art. Some good pieces of work, although nothing great. One notable work is titled "The Origins of War" and it depicted a large penis.
We also took in the Impressionist gallery. Orsay has a large collection of impressionist work, including a painting by Monet of Rue Montorgueil near where we are staying. The gallery was very crowded however - probably more so than the Louvre as that has more space. The view of the Rive Droite and Sacre Coeur from the terrace is very nice. The restaurant is crowded, sit down only and no doubt expensive so we doubled back along Rue de Bellechasse to have sushi for lunch.
Crossing the Seine to the Carousel du Louvre shopping mall we quickly decided to venture closer to home. In error we caught the metro to Opera - it would have been closer for us to walk to Bonne Nouvelle from the Louvre. Still, it was all an experience visiting areas not yet explored.
Our walk back to Bonne Nouvelle took us past the Bourse (stock exchange) opposite Agence France Presse. I also finally noticed the apartment building near ours with the wall garden. Everyone else had noticed it and I must have walked past six times or more without seeing it.
A little bit of retail therapy and then back to the apartment for a short rest.
We headed out at 7:15 to La Marais, arriving at Antony and Peter's apartment at 7:35. The metro makes Paris so accessible.
While small, the apartment is very nice and has a delightful view. We caught up on their news and then headed out for dinner. The patriotically named Chez Marianne was nice but served Middle Eastern food! Things are obviously cheaper in this precinct as we negotiated a price per head and couldn't finish the wide selection of tasty mezes.
After we had parted, Bruce and I sauntered around La Marais - where we had stayed 20 years ago - before heading home.