Another beautiful day in Paris.  Sunny, but not overly warm and blue skies.  We had a good breakfast – like we have had every day – and then set out.

So after Wednesday’s loss of patience at the Louvre, I was hoping to rebound at the Musée d’Orsay.  As we’ve discussed previously, I don’t study art, I don’t care about brush technique and I’m not an Artist groupie.  I’m basically a ‘PPP’ – pretty picture person.  It has to appeal to me visually or I’m on to the next one.  So let’s see how this works out.

The Musée d’Orsay, now also known as “Le MO”, is just a ten minute walk from our hotel.  If you don’t know the story, it was previously a train station that was repurposed as an art gallery.   You can really tell it was a train station from the facade and from the grand hall when you enter.

Our strategy was to start at the top floor and work our way down.  The top or fifth floor contains most of the impressionist and neo-impressionist works by artists like Monet, Sisley, Renoir, Cézanne, Degas and Pissarro.  From there we worked our way down and finished with the various sculptures.

Our strategy worked as we enjoyed ourselves in the gallery.  Many beautiful artworks with a smaller crowd made for a great visit.

After “Le MO”, we walked down to the Seine and bought tickets for the Batobus.  The batobus is a Hop-on / Hop-off boat with about ten stops between the Eiffel Tower and the Jardin du Plantes.  The Herkey version is Hop-on / Stay-on as we just enjoyed being on the river and enjoying the sites.  We road for a complete circuit before heading back to the hotel.  The price is €17 and the ticket is good for 24 hours.

We had a little time before having to clean up for dinner and it was nice to relax.  I haven’t walked this much since last year, so my tootsies are feeling a little sore.

Anyway, dinner tonight is at a restaurant called ‘Cinq Mars’.  It’s about a ten minute walk from the hotel, actually right behind the Musée d’Orsay.  It’s another smaller place that’s supposed to have really good food.

We started with our Kir Royals and then our starters were a cucumber salad with goat cheese for me and a delicious homemade terrine for Sue.  They actually brought over the whole dish so she could take as much as she wanted.  Our main plates were both fish.  Sue had a roasted turbot with a huge helping of spinach, while I had a roasted sea bream with asparagus and an artichoke purée.  Dessert was a rhubarb clafoutis for Sue and Creme caramel for me.  A nice bottle of white Bourgogne went down awfully easy.  Prices were reasonable and the service was very good.

‘We had a nice stroll back to the hotel and relaxed for the remainder of the evening.