Many steps today 8-1-15

Today, being Saturday, we located a Marche Brocante (collectors fair) and took the bus down close to the Paris Observatory.  This one is at the extreme Southern end of the esplanade extending down from the Luxembourg Gardens.  We visited the site when our friend Don was in Paris in July.  This one was smaller than many but still some interesting things to see.  We've decided to see if we can locate some more inexpensive prints put out by Cadart in the late 19th century.  They were an attempt to bring 'fine art' to less affluent citizens of that period and are interesting artifacts of the time.   I ignorantly bought one at a Hotel Drouot auction not long ago and we became interested in them.  No luck today though.   We perused the offerings with limited success, Deb bought a couple spoons to use in the apartment inexpensively.

After our visit we wanted to have lunch, so we looked at the offerings across the street at the Closerie de Lilas, a historic brasserie/restaurant made famous in the 30's by hosting luminaries such as Hemingway.   But we didn't fancy spending 100-200 euros for lunch so we walked up Boulevard Montparnasse towards Gare Montparnasse perusing menus along the way.  By the time we had reached the Tour Montparnasse we decided we would try one of our favorite seafood restaurants,   Of course it was closed for their fermeture annuelle so we had to go to plan B and that is no great hardship.

Just a couple blocks further on is Atelier 102, a small restaurant specializing in risotto, they serve it in probably 15 different varieties, some with seafood, some with meat, and some vegetarian so every taste can be addressed.  And it is much less expensive than our first two investigations.  So we had a delicious little lunch, melon with Jamon Serrano, a risotto with steak, peppers, and mushrooms, and finally a shared Panna Cotta with red fruit.  Couple that with a Cote de Languedoc villages and it makes a satisfying lunch.

After lunch we made our way to the North, up to the Invalides (Napoleon's tomb) and through the grounds to the Seine.  Then over to the Orangerie, a small museum at the Southwest corner of the Tuileries.

This is where, since the early 1900's, Monet's large water lily murals, the Nympheas, have been displayed.  They are in two large rooms and are composed of 8 murals approximately 8 feet tall by from 20 to perhaps 50 feet in length.  They are breathtaking in their composition and serenity. Some of the earliest examples of full on abstraction to be seen I believe, but he added just enough reality to meet the demands of the Parisian eye of that time period.   After an hour or so in these rooms we descended into the lower part of the building to see a fabulous collection of early 20th century impressionist and post impressionist works.   Renoir to Soutine, with a bit of Cezanne, Picasso, Matisse, Derain and Laurencin thrown in for good measure.   We will be coming back here for a more indepth visit, since we were booted out by the closing hours.   Great museum and we get in for free because of our Musee D'Orsay membership, Score!

After our visit we took a few minutes to sit in the Tuileries and people watch before heading to our bus to return home.    On the way we had a very nice conversation with a young couple from Madrid who stopped us to ask for directions (HA!) in Spanish, so we ended up spending several minutes in a tri-lingual conversation to help them with answers, lovely people.  We walked quite a fair distance today from the 13th through the 6th and 7th into the 1st arrondissements.