Walking, Walking, Walking

Sunday, April 13. Jed's birthday!

Breakfast of cafe au lait and croissants. Go to church at Saint Eustache. Bake sale outside after church, very cute high school kids raising money for school supplies for Cambodia. Buy slice of apple tarte to support the cause. Back home, have tea and share apple tarte. Gearing up for a lot of walking today.

Take metro from Hotel de Ville to l'Etoile. Walk down rue Mac-Mahon then around to rue Pierre Demours to see # 17 where Kitty (Tyler's stepmother) went to school in the 1930s.

Happen upon building where Mapie de Toulouse-Lautrec lived. She lived from 1901-1972 and was married to a cousin of the famous Henri. "Mapie" nickname for "Marie-Pierre." She studied cooking under Édouard de Pomiane and then after WWII became a journalist, writing a cooking column in Femina and then Elle. She was apparently the French Irma Rombauer (Joy of Cooking author) who brought the art of cooking to every one. She democratized an art which, until then, had been reserved for professionals.

Walk back to l'Etoile. Have lunch at Cafe Lateral: Omelettes au fromage, salade verte, frites et vin.

Take metro from l'Etoile to Champs-Elysees/Clemenceau. Try to visit the Grand Palais but it's closed because they are setting up auto show so we walk across street to the Petit Palais where we have a quick tour and use les toilettes.

Walk across Pont Alexandre III to the 7th arrondisement and continue walking along the river to Quai Branly to the Musee du Quai Branly, which houses a huge collection of indiginous art from around the world (Asia, Oceania, Africa and The Americas). The museum building was designed by Jean Nouvel who just won the Pritzker Prize. Since we're here, we decide to visit the museum. Mixed reviews on this one. I don't like the building itself but the museum contents are displayed beautifully. We're also tired which is not a good way to visit anything.

We walk to Square Robiac to see where some friends have an apartment. We break down and take a taxi home. We are dead. Hurt everywhere. You cannot believe how much walking we have done today. We cancel our dinner reservations at L'Alivi. We are literally too tired to eat.