Wednesday 11th June
We caught the #69 bus from near the hotel to the Rodin
Museum. The #69 bus drives past many of the “big ticket” show pieces of Paris: Pere
Lachaise Cemetery, The Bastille, Le Marais (near us), Louvre, Pompidou, Ile de
Cite, Ile St Louis, Hotel de Ville, Napoleon’s Tomb and the Eiffel Tower. So,
for the cost of a single bus/Metro ticket we could have had a one hour sightseeing
tour. We went from St Paul (Le Marais) to the Rodin Museum.
The Rodin Museum is currently undergoing renovation, of
course - (remember our saga with the Picasso Museum?) However, unlike the
boarded up for seven years Picasso Museum, Musee Rodin had a small exhibition
space showing many “works in progress” that Rodin had been working on,
including Balzac, The Burghers of Calais, The Thinker, The Kiss and The Gates
of Hell.
The beautiful garden was open and had several completed sculptures,
including Balzac, The Burghers of Calais, The Thinker, The Kiss and The Gates
of Hell. The gardens are very ordered, very neat and very French. The paths are
straight, except around the fountains, few flower beds, except for stunning
roses and the trees are clipped underneath, very neatly, providing lovely
dappled shade for the people strolling and the sculptures.
We could see the dome of Napoleon’s Tomb nearby and the tip
of the Eiffel Tower a bit further on.
We walked around to Les Invalides, the military hospital,
which I thought was no longer in use and only operated as a museum. It was a
little confronting to see disabled, injured and sick ex-military as we walked
through the grounds. There is a museum and of course, Napoleon’s Tomb, but
there is also a working hospital. We peeked inside the museum, but after hours
of military museum in Edinburgh, we did not relish the thought of more, even
though the Little Corporal did beckon. We resisted his call and lunched in the
shade, admiring the golden dome.
We then walked for about 25 minutes and reached Le Champs de
Mars and Le Tour Eiffel. The Champs de Mars was very dusty, and every little
breeze blew around sandy dust, but that did not prevent us from being awe
struck again by the fabulous tower. It looks bigger and grander each time we
see it.
We then caught the #69 bus back to Le Marais, had a snack at
the American diner across the road from the hotel. I know, who has American
food in Paris? The milk shakes looked irresistible!
Then back to the hotel for some rest and recuperation before heading out in the
evening for our last night in Paris.
After our rest period, we got back on the Metro to the Arc
de Triomphe, and were wowed again! We climbed the 248 steps to get to the top
and what a fabulous sight – the Champs Elysee and all of the other seven of
eight roads that meet in the centre at the Arc. We had a spectacular view of the
Eiffel Tower and also across to Sacre Coeur.
We stayed for about an hour and
then got back on the Metro to Montmartre to see Paris from another viewpoint.
When
we arrived in Paris we bought a book of ten Metro tickets and used them all,
although we got a bit bamboozled at the Nation changeover this evening and
somehow got outside the Metro system, which we did not want to do, and had to “jump
the gates”, well just opened them, because we had used our last ticket for the
last leg home.
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