De-librarying 2-19-16

One of the tasks that we have to take care of is to get rid of all the books that we've acquired that we won't be bringing back.  Not wanting to just throw them away, Deb called the American Library of Paris to see if they would want them, either for their regular library or for their annual book sale. The library said to bring the books over and they would decide what they could take, not an overwhelming response.  But of course they may not want 10 year old paperbacks, etc.  We also called our dentist to see if he would be in, we want to take our copy of "1000 Buildings of Paris" to him as a little parting gift.
So we caught the Metro over to the stop near him and walked over.  He was very touched by the gift and even brought his wife out to see.  She was very charming and we chatted just a bit, it would be fun if they came to Colorado.   But he had a patient waiting so we hurried out to get over to the library.
We got over to Trocadero, which is across the river from the Eiffel Tower and walked over to the library which is a very short distance from it.  The day was sunny and there were many tourists, so we opted for going around rather than through the Champs de Mars.  As I was walking across the bridge on the way to the library, I had a revelation, "I'll never be any younger than I am today, so I guess I am young again in Paris".

When we got to the library and showed them our books they were very congenial and took all of them.   No old Daphne DuMaurier for us, nor Fredrick Forsythe, a good French dictionary, a nice art history, and others like those.
At the end of the street where the library is located is one of the best, if not the
best Art Noveau building in all of Paris so we spent several minutes in admiration.  After that, we were hungry so we caught the bus over to within a couple blocks of Chartier and had yet another 'so long' lunch there (that makes two).

Then in an abrupt about face since we're now in tourist mode we went over to the Louvre and spent a couple hours viewing more rooms that have eluded us until now.  Beautiful objects from the

Egyptian Coptic culture, and a partial re-creation of an ancient Coptic church.  Wonderfully carved column capitals and equally wonderful fragments of Coptic weaving.  I was quite amazed at the amount of fabric fragments that still exist in good enough condition to be displayed.







The last part of the visit was to the Islamic rooms that were displaying objects from the medieval period that may have been the high point of that culture as far as artistic creation goes.  Beautiful 

Isnik pottery, great carpets, impressive metal work in utensils, bowls, armements, and carved stonework dating from the time of the Mugal emperors in India (think Taj Mahal).





It was dark when we left the Louvre so a couple shots to remember our evenings in Paris and our visits to the Louvre.