Autumn '06 Adventures

Paris

Thanks to the generosity of a friend who has an apartment in the Paris suburbs, just outside the Périphérique and a few minutes walk from the Porte d'Italie Metro, we spent a few days in Paris in November. We were prepared for cold weather, having visited there at the same time a few years ago, but it was surprisingly mild.

In addition to what's shown below, we also visited several other museums (Greek art to modern at the Petit Palais, a history of writing exhibit at the Post Office museum, some of the city-wide photography expo that was on then) and attended an excellent concert of chamber music (Bartok, Mozart, Beethoven) at the Theatre de la Ville.

Introduction
Canal du Midi
England
Paris

Canal St. Martin

Many people are unaware that there is a canal in Paris. It's a pleasant stroll (or you can take a tourist boat through several locks) in an area that until recently was rather seedy, but now is being fixed up.

Lunch at the Verre Volé

This little wine bar, just off the canal, was reviewed in the current week's issue of Pariscope, the local guide to what's happening in Paris, so we gave it a try - very nice!

Louvre and Pyramid

In this view, it's easy to see why the Louvre pyramid is controversial. Is it a striking contrast? or has an SR-71 landed in the courtyard? You decide.

Louvre Courtyard - Night

It does look pretty impressive at night. At least we think so.

Musee Carnavalet

This is the Museum of Paris History, where we were struck by the colors and patterns in the courtyard. The museum had many familiar portraits of important historical figures and paintings of famous events, but not much in the way of artifacts. (Guess we were expecting to see Louis XVI's guillotine blade or something.)

Colette and Diana

We met up with a childhood friend of Diana's, Colette Friedlander, who has lived in France for many years. As it was (almost) Colette's birthday, we celebrated with a lunch on November 16, the first day of Beaujolais Nouveau, and again with dinner the next night.

Paris from Tour Montparnasse

Guidebooks often recommend visiting the Tour Montparnasse, because from there you can see the Eiffel Tower (as above), instead of going to the Eiffel Tower, where you have to look at the Tour Montparnasse. In any case, the view from Montparnasse is really spectacular.

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