Moreau and Mediterranee

Monday, April 14. Breakfast: croissants, baguette, coffee.

Take metro to Pigalle. Walk down rue Frochot and then on to rue Rochefoucauld to the Musee Gustave Moreau. Moreau (1826-1898) was a French symbolist painter, and the museum (which he basically set up before his death and then left to l'Etat) is in his former residence. Unfortunately, the part of the museum I'm most interested in, the rooms of his personal apartment, are closed (manque de personnel, they say) so we can only see his paintings, drawings, watercolors. And there are a lot of them, the smaller ones stored in interesting cabinets so you can sit down and flip through them (not meaning to be "flippant" there!) He's not my favorite painter by a long shot but there are echos of Daumier and portents (?)of Chagall.

It starts raining just as we arrive at museum, and when we leave it has stopped! We walk to Place de la Trinite and visit l'Eglise Trinite (add description). Take metro to Sevres-Babylone and switch lines to end up at Odeon.

Our plan is to lunch at La Mediterranee, a fabulous seafood restaurant. (Some of the interior was designed by Jean Cocteau.) Because we don't have a reservation, when we arrive the maitre d' says that we will have to wait at least 20 minutes for a table which is just fine with us (hey, says Lyn, we wait longer than that at the Chowder Pot!). As long as we can sit down, we're fine! So we sit at the bar and have a kir. Lyn has oysters and bouillabaisse; I have tuna tartare and scallops. We share an amazing dessert, apple compote on the bottom and creme brulee on the top! My two favorite things. The waiters are cute and funny and have a "dispute" over whether Lyn should finish her "pauvres petites pommes de terre!"

We close down the lunch service. One of waiters, Georges, shows us photographs and their book of autographs, which includes drawings by many well known people. Then he asks us to sign it! Since neither of us can draw, we're feeling completely inadequate. Finally, I have a brainstorm and draw two flowers (literally the only thing I can draw), one tall (that would be Lyn), and one short (that would be me!). I sign only my name but Lyn writes: meme mieux qu'en 1967 ("even better than in 1967" when she dined there with her parents and her brother). Georges asks us where we're from and it turns out his cousin lives in Vernon/Rockville. Six degrees of separation . . .

Walk to Musee du Luxembourg (Vlaminck) and then through the Luxembourg Gardens: beautiful spring flowers in abundance, yellow tulips and purple hyacinths with yellow primroses.

We walk all the way through the garden and then up the hill to the Pantheon to visit the church of Saint-Etienne-du-Mont, one of my all-time favorite churches in Paris. We walk down to Place de Sorbonne (photo of cafe called "The Baker's Dozen") and on to Place St Michel. It's freezing cold and windy!!

We go into Gilbert Jeune as I want to find more Mysteres Parisiens by Claude Izner (a pseudonym for two sisters who, among other professional accomplishments, are bouquinistes sur les quais). The stories are set in Paris of the 1890s so not only are they mysteries, they are include a lot about the history (and historical figures) of Paris. I've read one so far and am looking forward to the sequels.

Down rue de la Huchette. Feeling dehydrated so have tea and water at Cafe du Petit Pont. Walk back across river, sun shining on Notre Dame again, up rue Saint Martin and home.