Paris

Catching up on blog entries.

Made it to Paris late Thursday and to the Hotel Metropolitan via RER and Metro. Tiny room with a huge king bed that was pretty close to a Westin Heavenly Bed as they claim. Met up with my Mom and one of her friends for a few days before heading to London on the 26th. Went to the http://www.musee-orangerie.fr and http://www.musee-orsay.fr. The Orangerie was impressive with the rooms of Monet's water lillies and the collection downstairs. The Orsay is huge and filled with school groups which detracted from the excellent and huge collection they have. I liked the Neo-Impressionism rooms. The paintings are made up of little dabs of paint that are impressive when viewed from close up.

Had some good food. There was a market Saturday morning on the Ave de Woodrow Wilson where I had some sort of Lebanese flatbread with tomato, herbs, and two kinds of cheese cooked on a convex metal grill. Had North African including a great Algerian wine at 404 and buffalo mozzarella followed by chicken paella then cheese with wine from Gascony at Le Kiosk (Place de Mexico) which had a great weekly menu featuring pyrenees specialties. Also had a few Belgian beers and some frites with dijon mayo at http://www.academie-biere.com.

On a rainy Sunday morning, cought the Eurostar for the three hour trip to London from Gare du Nord. Totally uneventful trip although I noticed that the tunnel pretty much puts everyone to sleep.