Monet, Manet, Pissarro, Sisley

On the eighteenth I wrote that I had gotten up the day before and I started writing.  My friend and I went to a place called Eggs near Dragon street. It was in an old cottage and half of the attic was a diorama of a chicken coup. We tried to get the window seat but they were cleaning the windows. In fact a few people tried to sit there. The waiter even relocated a few people while we ate.  Later some big men say near us. Everyone spoke English.

When we were finished we walked across St Germain then and followed Universite to musee d'Orsay then. When we entered we went to the top and had coffee. There was a big clock in the window.  We walked into the galleries on the fifth floor then. That floor had many impressionists including Monet, Manet, Pissarro, Sisley and even some sculpted ballet dancers from Degas. I also noted the Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe which turned out to be a recurring theme.

We passed the gift shop on the fifth floor then and I noted the second clock facing the street. The fourth and third floors had a lot of meticulously carved Art Nouveau furniture. There were also a lot of great images that were unfortunately poorly lit.

There was a scale model on the bottom floor depicting the opera and its environs which I photographed. We had to sit for a bit and then we saw Latour, Moreau and Lautrec. There were countless pieces from Gauguin and Van Gough including Starry Night over the Rhone.

We had lunch in the museum then and the meal was great.  We finished the bottom floor then.  While the special exhibits gallery was closed we still saw a lot of Spanish paintings. We were especially happy to see Manet’s Olympia, Fifer and Ladies in the Garden.

We left them after getting postcards and our coats and then grabbed some bikes and crossed the river to visit the Eiffel Tower. The going was difficult so crossed when we could and took photos of the tower. We saw a trike get a ticket so quit.  We took a photo instead.

We dropped the bikes the and settled on a cafe on rue de Clar. We had a snack and tea, tried to send photos but had trouble. Charlie texted Sheryl about underwear. Eventually we started to run late so we got the bikes and took Grenelle to the hotel.

The ride was contra flow and difficult as a result. However we did manage to find Velib parking spaces. Unfortunately we had a hard time making a quick turnaround at the hotel to meet my old acquaintance from Madrid. Our communication via social media had been spotty but he had only just arrived home when we arrived at his place near Montmartre.

We hung out at his nice apartment for a while sipping white port and sparkling water.  My friend noted the red accents. He told us about his career since Madrid and how he had become a general manager. Later we walked down Boulevard Batignolles to the bridge over Montmartre cemetery and continued on to Abbeses. On the way we saw an urban arrow cargo bike.

We sat down at a nondescript bistro and we chatted while the waiter took his time serving us. We discussed FB for world traveling and how lonely it can be to work in several countries over time. My old friend assisted us in ordering and we split some muscadet and salmon toast.   He told us about how he had been an intern while in school. He told us that the Madrid team had been ideal.

We had salad, scallops and chicken while talking about our personal lives and politics.  This brought us back to how his responsibilities interfered with his personal life. In time he recounted his plans for travel to see family and also to see friends in Brazil. He told us he was doing yoga and appreciated it as a ritual. We finished with dessert and drinks. It was getting late and my old friend had to get up early so we walked to Abbeses and said goodbye before descending the long stairwell to the station.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.