Bonjour, Paris! The city sleeps late on Sunday in the Marais. This disinclination to rise and shine offers a visitor a rare chance to wander the deserted streets without doing much more than tracking shadows edging down the sides of the buildings.
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A highlight of a trip to Paris last summer was a visit to the Musée Picasso. Having been undergoing years of renovation, modernization andexpansion, the museum reopened October 25, 2014. Recreating museums and giving them a whole new life is something the French do exceedingly well; indeed, they do it without compare. Turning up an hour before the opening time—Not until eleven, monsieur? —gave me an excuse to linger over coffee at a small café, Le Saint Gervais, down the block from the museum, at the corner of rue Vieille du Temple. Taking a sidewalk table, I did little more than sit 'n' sip, if keeping an eye on a couple catching the morning rays in a secluded park across the street. All of which made for a quintessentially Parisian moment for this flaneuse/bloggeuse.
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Breaking news from Paris: Word on the street has it that visitors to the Louvre are twelve-deep behind the velvet rope, straining to get a view of the Mona Lisa. Only those with the sharpest elbows make it to the front for a ‘selfie’ with the engaging young woman with the enigmatic smile. Luckily, my companion and I have tickets, not for the Louvre, but for the museé d’Orsay, where the reserved line is moving smartly along.
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Of the thirty-plus locations that Woody Allen used in the film "Midnight in Paris," there wasone I didn't recognize, a part of Paris I had never seen. Do you remember in the film when Gil goes to the 1920s party and meets Adrianna in a room with a carousel? The whole idea was so enchanting, but where could it be? Going on-line, I discovered Le Musee des Arts Forains, the Museum of Fairground Arts. Quickly, I added it to a list of places to visit the next time I saw Paris. After all, if it was good enough for Woody, it was good enough for me.
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