En route to a Metro station in Republic Square, we walked along Rue du Temple past dozens of shops carrying fashion jewelry, leather purses and other accessories. Many were run by Chinese proprietors, and most were either wholesale only or had a minimum euro amount for purchases. I would have had no trouble meeting the minimum...
We took the Metro to the western part of the city to visit the Museum Marmottan Monet, an inexplicably relatively undiscovered treasure trove of the works of Monet, Berthe Morisot, and other Impressionists. Housed in what had once been a duke's 19th century hunting lodge far from the center of the city, it is home to the world's largest collection of the works of Claude Monet, thanks to a bequest of the artist's sole surviving son. The permanent collection just overflows with the works of the Great One, and it's currently augmented by pieces from all over the world in a special exhibition on the origins of Impressionism; it was simply extraordinary! We especially enjoyed seeing scenes of Rouen and Normandy that we had visited earlier on this trip, as well as many works of Eugene Boudin, Monet's mentor, and Honfleur's favorite son. The museum's collection also includes bequests of Berthe Morisot's heirs, an extensive assemblage of medieval manuscript illuminations, and the fabulous house and its furnishings. This was a Wow! morning for us. (No photos allowed)
As we were very close to the Bois du Boulogne, a huge park in western Paris, we decided to walk over and through it to see Frank Gehry's latest architectural extravaganza, the Louis Vuitton Foundation. It's set to open officially on Monday, but preview ticket holders (which we were not) could get in today. We'd just wanted to see the outside anyway, so we were satisfied, if not exactly wowed by the masterwork. We walked through the children's park-within-a-park and beyond so that we could have a view of the monumental arch of La Defense, built in1989 to mark the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution. We stood on the esplanade with the modern arch to our west, the Arc de Triomphe to the east, and beyond that, unseen but on the same axis, the Place de la Concorde and Carousel du Louvre.
Deciding to save our feet a bit, we took the Metro to the Champs Elysees, and were definitely on the tourist track. We moved with the crowd along the grand boulevard, across the Place de la Concorde, and into the Tuileries. The gardens were full of flowers, ponds, fountains, sculptures, and people as we headed toward the Louvre.
As we headed back to the Marais, we stopped in the large church of St. Eustache, which used to stand next to Les Halles, the city's famous old wholesale food market. St. Eustache remains, but the landmark market was razed and replaced by an underground shopping mall and street-level plaza, to the horror of many. Now, that plaza is being updated, trendy shops line the adjacent streets, and St. Eustache watches it all.
Several blocks away, the Pompidou Center's modern art collection extends to the design of the building itself, a striking "inside-out" construction, with the heating, plumbing, and ventilation ductwork all visible on the exterior of the building, rather than concealed within its core.
A few blocks later, and we were back home after a great Paris day.
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