Paris Day 3: La Parc et Musee

Today started off with an early wake up call from Katie. She got up around 7:30 and made sure we were awake too. Nancy volunteered to go get yummy croissants from a bakery down the street. Then we went to the Jardin du Luxembourg, an enormous park that's a nice 10 minute walk from our apartment. The park was created as the grounds for the Palais du Luxembourg in 1615 and has been functioning ever since. The centerpiece is a huge 400 year old fountain in which people sail toy boats in the summer. The palace now hosts the French Senate which was hard to believe since we didn't see any security. We're accustomed to seeing lots and lots of security around our Senate. The park is surrounded by lots of old statues in dramatic poses.

In the park Katie met two nice girls her age from the States, Molly and Josie. They had lived in Paris for over a year and one was from Virginia and the other New York. After running around with them for a while, Katie was ready to move on to the playground. She was a little disappointed to find out that Parisian playgrounds don't have swings but found plenty of other things to play with (especially in the 7 years and older section that we had to keep telling her wasn't for her).

After that we wondered through the beautiful and bustling St. Germain district on our way to the Musee D'Orsay. We were awe struck at the number of nice stores along the way and how densely populated it was. Katie zonked out about ten minutes into the walk. We stopped for lunch at a British Pub run by a Vietnamese family and Katie slept the entire time. We then continued onto Musee D'Orsay which is one of my favorite museums. It used to be a train station and has a huge arched ceiling inside and contains the best Impressionist paintings anywhere in the world.

Katie woke up in the museum and enjoyed looking at paintings... for a while. It was interesting looking at the paintings with Katie and Nancy. With Nancy, I'd try to make comments like, "the brush strokes really convey the sense of wind and movement." But with Katie I'd say, "Look! There's a chicken! How about that!" After a while she got restless so I took her outside and we raced each other to the elephant statue and back.

When we left Musee D'Orsay it was dark so we walked along the river back to the apartment. Then we went out for a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant where the waiter made playful faces at Katie each time he passed by, which she loved.

All in all, it was a great day but we were very happy to be able to lay down and rest when it was over.

More photos are here.


A small part of the 17th century park, "la Jardin du Luxembourg". People sail toy boats on the fountain in the summertime.


The 350 year old Palais du Luxembourg where the French Senate meets.


The tourists.


"Run around Daddy! Run around!"


The Princess rides her horse to the Palace.


Whee!


Behind us is a replica of the Statue of Liberty. It was made as a bronze model as part of the preparatory work by Bartholdi for the real statue.


One of the many beautiful walkways in the park.


The beautiful Musee D'Orsay.


Nancy shows Katie one of her favorite paintings, a mother with her baby in a bassinet.


Katie poses like Degas' ballerina.