Galleries and Language Schools

Tuesday, 18 April 2006

We went our separate ways today. Bruce wanted to go to a couple of galleries and Ginnie wanted to explore other things.

Bruce visited the Musee d'Orsay where he found a really interesting exhibition of photographs taken between 1840 and 1900 and then, of course, went to look at the Impressionists. The d'Orsay is in an old railway station and has a wonderful collection especially of the Impressionists. After lunch there he went to the Rodin museum which is really a beautiful sculpture park with all the pieces that everyone has seen pictures of including "the thinker" and the "Burghers of Calais." It is so beautiful and peaceful that you have the sense that you want return there again and again.

Ginnie is a serious French language student having studied it to A Level standard in England many years ago. She still has a weekly lesson in Hobart with a native speaking teacher. She discovered an accredited French language school via the Internet and has been in correspondence with them. It is very close to the area in which we are staying and she would love to study there. Perhaps the opportunity will present at some time in the future. Anyway, today she went down to see the school. High security--she pressed all of the buttons to be let in and obeyed all the instructions. Nobody presented and she managed to tour the entire school without interruption. A little bit concerned about what this says for the school's security. She might try again another day.

Still very cold. When we left the flat this morning it was struggling to hang in around five degrees and now, at 8.00 in the evening, it has risen to a scorching eleven degrees. The flat however is heated and even when we don't use the heat the fact that it is on the first floor of a six storey building means that it is usually pretty well insulated from the cold. Wonder what it would be like when the temperature gets into the mid-30s. I am not sure we really want to know!