Seeing Waterlilies and Meeting Dragan

Today we had a late breakfast - about 9:30.

Breakfast

I picked up the tickets for the L'Orangerie museum and ordered a cab for 1:30. There was a sign in the lobby that said we were meeting the cruise director for Ama Lyrica. I went to the guy at the desk and said I was going on Ama Cello and was he sure that it was Ama Lyrica? He was not. It was a mistake. He gave us a folder and our luggage tags. The folder had two tours for tomorrow and Wednesday free, but with a possibility for a cabaret in Montmartre in the evening.

Then A took some benedryl and basically slept the morning away while I caught up on some things. We were too lazy to go to lunch so I ate the cold French fries from yesterday - they weren't very good cold. I tried to use what I think is the bidet attachment and got water all over the bathroom floor even though I really tried to be careful.

We roused ourselves to get a taxi to go to L'Orangerie to see the Monet's water lilies. It was very hot today - even for A. who is from Texas.

Front of the hotel

The taxi dropped us by the entrance to the Tuilerie Gardens. We went for the shade, but we had gone the wrong way. We had to go up a rutted ramp in the sun to the museum and it was about the same as the path in Manuel Antonio had been, intermittent gravel and dirt which was hard on the scooter.

And did I mention it was hot?

We got up to the museum and I went up the ramp that the Sage Traveling website said we could use to get into the museum without going up steps and they let us in the door. They did not ask for and would not look at our tickets which cost €18 @ . Children under 18 are free and disabled people with certain types of documentation are also free, but neither of us fitted that description. But they seemed to think we did. A. had to check her backpack (I guess it was too big) but they did not even look at my pocketbook.

We bought a ticket (€6 each) for the tour in English at 1:15 which was to be an hour and a half. We were there early so we went in and looked at the water lily pictures first. There were 8 of them in two different rooms. They were arranged more or less in order of the day with the earliest pictures on the east end and the sunset at the west side. So the second room was the east end, and here there were

The Water Lilies - Morning with Willows

The Tree Reflections one in the east room we seem to have more or less ignored as I can only find this one little photo.
of

section of The Water Lilies - Trees Reflections

Some people see a self portrait of Monet here

The Water Lilies - The Clouds

The Water Lilies - Clear Morning with Willows

The Water Lilies - Clear Morning with Willows

The west room starts with this one on the west wall

The Water Lilies - Setting Sun

The Water Lilies - Green Reflections

The Water lilies - Morning

The Water Lilies - Morning

One side of The Water Lilies - The Two Willows

Then we went to wait for the tour.

Waiting for the English tour

We got headsets (which had a certain amount of feedback although it was easier to hear her) and they started to go down the stairs. I had to use the elevator and there was someone in a wheelchair in front of me and the elevator would only take one of us so I was a little late getting to the group.

Downstairs was part of an art collection of Paul Guillaume who had an art gallery and bought paintings for himself. But it was not a comprehensive collection - just what he and later his wife had liked.

After his death, she had for instance, sold most of the Picassos because she didn't like them. The guide was trying to take us through the Impressionist and subsequent periods. She started with Renoir,

Guide with Renior (which we saw another one of the two girls playing the piano later at the Musee d'Orsee)

and then she went to the photos of Guillaume and his wife painted by Derain.

Portrait of Mme. Guillaume with a large hat by Andre Derain

Then back to Renoir for several paintings including a couple of his son who was not happy about posing and had to be bribed

Claude Renior - Pierre-Auguste Renior's son

Claude Renior

the few that there were by Picasso,

Picasso - Grand nature morte c 1918

Fille rousse by Modigliani

and Marie Laurencin who painted Coco Chanel. Ms Chanel did not like the picture and would not pay for it.

Coco Chanel

Then it was back upstairs to the waterlilies. I had to take the elevator again, and some perfectly abled people tried to get in on the -1 floor, but I wouldn't let them. There wasn't room for them unless I got off, and I wasn't going to do that.

Blocking the view

Guard sleeping

By this time it was 3:45 so the hour and a half tour had already been two and a half hours. She didn't finish until almost 4. I found her English very unfluent, although I could understand what she was trying to get across.

We went back out into the hot sun, and A called an Uber which she paid for on her phone. He came in 5 minutes and delivered us back to the hotel. We rested a bit and I ate some trail mix and A ate her leftover fries and some oreos.

Then it was time to meet Dragan - our tour director's name is Dragon Reljic. We had cocktails and met some of the other passengers. Some of us are at the Renaissance Arc de Triomphe and some are here. The ones we met were Ann and Cary from Asheville NC, Joe and Pat from NYC, and Barbara from Santa Barbara and her three daughters, two of whom are Amy and Alice. They are old enough to be married with children which have been left with the other grandparents.

The schedule is somewhat different from what it was originally listed. Originally we were to go to the Musee d'Orsay on Wednesday. Wednesday is now a free day except for the cabaret on Montmartre at night. Tomorrow we have a bus tour with a stop for lunch at Sacre Coeur, ending up at the Eiffel Tower. And then at 7:15 we are picked up for the City of Light tour which, because the sun goes down so late at this time of year, will last until midnight.

A made the concierge get out the key to the lift (usually I just go out through the restaurant) and we started out to find a place to eat dinner. The first place was Italian food but had a significant step. So we went to the next place which was called XVIeme Avenue (it was on 16th Ave). They had a ramp so we went in and they gave us a table by a double door that looked out on the terrace. It had gotten a lot cooler by this time.

We had the prix fixe meal which was €34 each plus €6.50 for a large bottle of water. A had snails as the starter

Snails

which she really didn't care for and I had frog legs which I like.

Frog legs

So we switched in the middle and she had 2 of my frog legs (which she liked) and I had 3 of her snails which I like.

Tools to eat snails

(they gave her a clamp to pick up the shells which were hot) and a tiny fork to get the snails out of the shell. What I got was a wet wipe because you basically had to pick up the frog legs to eat them. Both starters were good.

Then A had lamb and it was quite big piece of lamb and so she was quite full when she finished.

Large piece of lamb

and I had Duck l'Orange. They came with mashed potatoes. My duck was just right

Duck L'orange

We ordered dessert - she had nutella crepes, and I had two scoops of sorbet.

Crepes for dessert

Two scoops of sorbet - coffee and salted caramel

Both good, but A could not eat all of hers.

We are getting ready to go out tomorrow.

A's report on the Orangerie