Wondrous Notre Dame, Musee Branly, and More Food

Daylight until 10pm in a city with an infinite number of things to see and do is not the ideal environment for a blog because when you finally get down to working on it you pass out from exhaustion almost immediately. Hence the delay, she said. I shall now bore you with a great many pictures of Notre Dame Cathedral - an utterly gorgeous building that is made mesmerising by the presence of a medieval art historian (Anne-Marie) who keeps pointing out a truly endless series of riveting details in the architecture. And we haven't even been inside yet....
Today is Thursday (I think - six hour time change and all that) and our last full day in Paris. Yesterday we headed out to see the Eiffel Tower, well armed with fantastic fresh rolls and croissants from the corner Boulanger Patisserie (that would be nearly every corner)and then settled into our raison d'etre for coming to Paris - the Musee de Quai Branly. This is an extraordinary institution built quite recently by Jacques Chirac to house the colonial collections formerly on display at the Trocadero and the Musee de l'Homme - the arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. It was hugely controversial, has some seriously peculiar post-colonial design issues, but the work is astonishing. Six hours later we stumbled out, totally overwhelmed, and headed back to Notre Dame which promptly closed the minute we got there. So that's first on the list this morning. But that gave us a great excuse to once again wander the narrow streets of the Ile de la Cite and the Latin Quarter in search of the perfect restaurant, which we found in La Salaambo, a terrific little Franco-Tunisian eaterie. We happily settled into tajines (stewed meats and vegetables cooked in these characteristic clay pots with conical
covers),couscous,french bread, olives, a fiery sauce to add at will, terrific house wine, and finally, orange sorbet and chocolate mousse. Bliss. Just thinking about it this morning has my stomach directing me to the nearest boulanger, and today will be a true marathon - Notre Dame to see the inside finally, the Louvre, the Pompidou, and my must see, the Egyptian obelisque stolen from the tomb of Queen Hatshepsut to be a Parisian monument. Can't miss that !

Safe Landing

PARIS !!!! What an extraordinary city. I'm just checking in briefly to say hello - more images later but Anne-Marie and I MUST get to the museums. The flight was just fine, and I totally recommend Air Berlin. They stuff you full of food, and for the night flights they give you this cool little sleep kit with ear plugs, eye mask,toothbrush, and SOCKS. How cool is that. And they're on time. Non-stop Ft.Myers to Dusseldorf, hang around a few hours, then a small plane to Paris, and Anne-Marie was exactly right there at the airport, bag came in, I paid something like $5.00 for a Diet Coke, and off we went to the centre of Paris and the Hotel Ibis - remarkably efficient use of space in the room, but quite comfortable. After a short, horizontal break we went pelting off into the city on the underground, straight to Notre Dame where the light was utterly fabulous and the building impossibly beautiful. It stays light here until about 10:30 and this being Paris everyone was wandering around with us so we took our time finding the perfect little cafe in the Latin Quarter facing another gorgeous medieval church that had a 'prix fixe' three course meal for 16 eoros: mussels in white wime, grilled salmon, creme brulee....maaaaahhhhvelous. SO a grand beginning to this European adventure and now we're off to find a baguette and the Musee de Quai Branly !