Arts et Metiers

Thursday, October 25. This morning I sleep late. It's almost 10 when I wake up. That hasn't happened since I've been here. Maybe it's the full moon? Cafe au lait at home, then later out to lunch at Le Verre Luisant across the "street." I'm feeling the need for a big salad and they have a good Salade Vegeterienne. A glass of red wine. An apple tart. Coffee. I sit and read in between each part of the meal. And two hours later I've finished lunch and Le Malade Imaginaire! This is the life!

Musee des Arts et Metiers. I've walked by this museum several times so today I thought I'd spend an hour in here just to see what's there. Was I ever in for a surprise. Almost four hours later, I staggered out the front door with a bad case of museum fatigue. Every time I thought, "OK, I'm just going to walk through the rest of this," something else would catch my eye. This is a huge and fascinating museum. Way too much to do in one fell swoop, but of course, I did. I just couldn't stop. I thought it was closing at 6 p.m. but then noticed that it's open late on Thursday so I kept going and going.

It was the second museum I've seen since my father died when I really wished he could have been there with me (the other was the Railway Museum in York, England). He would have loved every inch of this place. Models and engines and trains and all kinds of contraptions. The history of weights and measures. The history of transport. And on and on. It's a veritable panoply of the Industrial Revolution. The museum was renovated in 2000 and is fabulous. There are little rails that run around each floor that carry a little car which allows them to move all the heavy things that are on display. [More details later.]

On the way home, I hit the traitteur, the fruit and vegetable stand, la patisserie and the market. Laying in provisions for Lyn's arrival tomorrow!