But before I get to Sunday, a little more detail about Saturday. We visited the Musee d’Art Moderne and saw 3 exhibits. One was the Spirit of Electricity, which was painted by Raoul Dufy for the 1937 World’s Fair in Paris, and restored in 2020. It is one of the largest paintings in the world (look it up) and is incredibly impressive – the pictures really don’t do it justice.

I also enjoyed an exhibition of works by the American artist Kerry James Marshall – The Histories. It was fascinating, and coincidentally, we had seen a small group of his work last time we were in DC.

From there we enjoyed a quick lunch and then walked along the Seine towards the Louvre, pausing to check out parks ad sculptures along the way before crossing back to the left bank.

We spotted a tiny little art shop that we had to visit. Magasin Sennelier has been there since 1887, founded by a chemist fascinated by the creation of colour.

Sunday: We started off the day with coffee and pastry from Boulangerie Leonie and made our way to Musee d’Orsay. So much to see, so many people and after a couple of hours it was time to make our escape.

It seemed like everyone – tourist or local, was out enjoying the last of the summer weather.

Before we knew it, we were making our way across Pont Neuf to check out Samaritaine – a classic Parisienne department store dating from the late 1800s. After closing in 2005, it was redesigned as a mixed use site and reopened in 2021, enhancing and preserving the beautiful art deco and art nouveau style. It was truly spectacular to see.

Then it was off to dinner at Vaudeville – a classic French brasserie in the Art Deco style.

Soon enough after our delicious dinner, we enjoyed our stroll back to our hotel, over the Pont des Arts, enjoying the glowing moon and the beam of light radiating from the Eiffel Tower. 

Monday: Today we changed things up and went to a different Boulangerie for cafe crème and pain au raisins, a delicious change of pace.

Then, it was off to the Musee de Luxembourg (quelle surprise  – another museum visit!). When we were walking through the Luxembourg Garden on our first morning, we spotted a poster advertising a new exhibit of Andy Warhol: Line and Image. We were able to get tickets for this morning and I really enjoyed learning about his development as an artist- there was a lot more to it than Campbell soup cans and silkscreens of the famous or infamous.

Sharon and I took a stroll around the garden again, enjoying the shade and the people watching. 

Back to the Clement to retrieve our luggage and a quick Uber to Gare de Lyon to wait for our train. Now we’re on board and zipping through the French countryside enroute to Basel. 

Tomorrow begins the land portion of our cruise to Amsterdam. The weather here has been fabulous so far (a little on the warm side for me) although I hear that Rome has had some pretty severe flooding in the last while. Hopefully things will be better for them soon.