9/19 This day was Musee d'Orsay day. This old abandoned rail road station was converted into a museum that, oh by the way, has the best impressionist painting collection in the whole world - maybe. That happens to be Lynn and my fav paintings so we spent quite a bit of time admiring them - Monet, Renoir, Manet, Sisley: that crowd of French painters from the 1800's. Then we went to the Rodin museum where the sculptor lived and chose to place his collection of art objects. And oh by the way, he did some painting - gosh, I didn't know that. Rodin is one of our fav sculptors so we did some hanging out there as well. A truly great day:)

9/20 Today was our first day in Louvre, and we spent all day in Louvre, holding hands. It is said, especially here, that this is the greatest museum in the world - well, I don't know about that but I do know it's really really big! There are 4 floors and we managed 2 1/2 floors today. In many instances the building out shines the contents. The French palace before Versailles, this huge building is quite spectacular, outclassing those of the Vienna Hapsburgs. The museum floor plan needs a little work however, even with a map the well posted walk is impossible to negotiate without seeking support from the, thankfully, many support personnel throughout the museum. Retiring to our hotel for refreshment, a Subway sandwich, and to put our climbing gear together - we had a 9:00 appointment to climb the Eiffel Tower. When we arrived the crowds were significantly less than the weekend so rather than climb we decided to go up in the elevator.  It's a cozy operation; people are packed into each carrier, then exited at level two,  a queue to the next carrier, then a crowded trip to the top ( where the view was stunning- sparkling lights and a light breeze) followed by an equally cozy return- was fun for us cause we're in Louvre ;) on the way home we played on the Metro- we're getting to be pros. We can now get our own tickets without help, we can figure out which train to get on without help, and we can open the door on the subway - our first attempt we stood waiting for the door to open, it didn't, and the train went on with us just looking astonished. Fortunately, a kind fellow explained about the button next to the door. Next time we pushed it, and sure enough, the door opened:/ We now wave at our new friends, the station information attendants, in several stations.

9/21 This day we did the D'orsay again just to revisit the collection of impressionist paintings, The original of one of the paintings that hangs in our house - Moulins de la galette is showcased there and we admired it awhile along with many other masterpieces. Then we attacked the second floor of the Louvre, with a dash of bread and cheese in between in the Tuilleries - the long park in front of the Louvre. Our walk home involved a stop at Subway, a stop at a grocer to get more cola, a stop at our favorite award winning bakery, and rain. After a meal of Subway and Coke we wandered (We try to wander at every opportunity. We have found more interesting nuggets wandering than any other form of transportation.) via the subway to Champs Élysées and the Arch De Triumph, then down the Champs to the Seine and left to the boat ride. We discovered after walking to the Louvre that the boat dock was the other way, so we enlisted our new found subway skills and found the station near the dock. A short walk to the dock and we were off on an hours journey viewing Paris from the water. A completely different perspective brought into clear view by powerful flood lamps along the side of the boat, it was a continuum of photo ops - old stuff galore. Then back to the subway, the home station, and a midnight Pizza Hut pizza - um um! Of interest is that in the   last few days we've discovered numerous islands of police and army men, we assume. because of the Muslim issues.

9/22This was an "oh dang"  day; starting with the "oh dang". The new video camera quit working! So we shifted our plans, asked the hotel receptionist where a camera shop was, using Lynn's extraordinary navigational skills and her outstanding multilingual communicational skills we found a new video camera. On the way out of the store we decided to test the new camera; after removing it from its package we were reminded that camera batteries don't come charged:)  however, during that time God dropped by - Lynn discovered that the old camera had a reset button {:o } So using her ear ring we poked the recessed button, and shazam! The camera came alive. We returned to the photo department and returned our new camera purchasing 3 new memory chips for our old one:)

Then onto the tube and off to Musee Marmottes Monet - it has the largest collection of Monet paintings in the world. Then out into the Bois de Bolougne, a very large park next to the Musee. Our first park wandering was in an isolated wild section looking much like true wilderness. The path led to a more park like setting with a standard quantity of people, and the standard lake - a large lake with row boats, and a ferry to take you to the two islands. We opted to stay ashore to walk the length of the lake to a tube station to get to the Maxims tour. Our newly developed tube technique worked flawlessly putting us at the proper station well within our schedule. Unfortunately, the police decided to close all the exits from the station - good grief! We still don't know why. An attendant told us to get back on the tube, go down one station, get off and walk back. This would certainly put us at Maxims after the last tour: we went back to the hotel for a nap instead :)