Our final day in Paris began with a walk around our neighborhood (the Marais). The Marais use to be a swamp until the 1500's under Francois I. At that time he had the Marais cleared and opened for development. In the photo below you can see the Place Des Vosges built in 1606 where Victor Hugo lived for 16 years.
Next, we took the metro to Place de la Concorde and visited the Musee De l'Orangerie which contains Monet's series of painted panels called The Water Lilies as well as the personal collection of art collector/dealer Paul Guillaume. This museum was the perfect size and definitely not as overwhelming as the Lourve or Musee d'Orsay.
This afternoon we finally had onion soup at the Christmas markets! It was fantastic as was the ham and cheese crepe and mulled wine (again!). After walking through the markets we headed home to relax and have dinner before going back out for one last blast...at the Pompidou Centre. What a place! If you're interested in modern art, this is the place for you. This museum gave great descriptions to help make sense of the objects you were viewing. We particularly enjoyed the art from 1905-1960 including works by Picasso and Matisse.
We are leaving Paris in the moring for Turin and are looking forward to letting things simmer for a while. (Which reminds me, I don't think we will have internet access in our hotel in Turin so next Tuesday might be the next post.) I think I can speak for both Rob and I when I say that Paris can be a very overwhelming place to visit. Our 4 1/2 day itinerary was very aggressive and I would recommend no less than 7 days to really get to know the history of the city and all it has to offer...preferably two weeks. We'll be back though, because that's just the kind of place Paris is.
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