The Orangerie at last!

11 April 2007

One thing that we have noticed that is a quite significant change since last year is the amount of "no smoking" signs in public places. The entire Gare du Nord, including all its bars, cafes and restaurants, is now non-smoking as is the entire Metro system. We have even seen eating places that appear to be fully non-smoking although to be honest they are not yet that common. It seems that France is going to move increasingly in the direction of limiting public smoking over the next six months to a year. Just as in Australia and now in London, we see little cliques of smokers puffing away outside buildings on their ten minute breaks. Of course some people choose to totally ignore the non-smoking signs, but one feels smoking is at least being curbed.
Today was a wonderfully successful day! Those of you who know us well will know that in the middle of last year we dined at the Sydney Opera House. We were introduced to a French wine which we found very much to our liking and for which we paid approximately $75 per bottle. A ghastly price, but there you are; "location, location, location." And it was a lovely meal and the view was sensational. Anyway, we liked the wine so much we found a supplier and ordered some from him. The price dropped dramatically to about $25 per bottle. Today while shopping at Monoprix, Virginia found exactly the same wine for well under 5 euros a bottle. That's about A$7.50. You don't need three guesses to figure out what we are drinking tonight.

Apart from doing the basic things like cleaning, shopping and laundry, we managed to get into the Musee de l'Orangerie. Not being a Tuesday, today, it was open and the queue was only an hour long. After about thirty minutes, Virginia was mumbline for all to hear "I'll bet Crown Princess Mary doesn't have to queue like this." Once inside however we found a most remarkable exhibition. Two oval rooms with the walls covered with Monet's water-lilies. The rooms were actually designed by Monet himself and are a perfect setting for these huge canvases.
As well there was a wonderful selection of Renoirs, Cezannes, Picassos, Utrillos, Modiglianis and a painter that neither Virginia nor I knew, Marie Laurencin.

Later we had tea in the Tuilleries Gardens. The waiter was sullen, the service slow, but nothing could dampen the wonderful weather and the pleasure of being in Paris again.