A Brief Stop in Paris

We started our current trip in Paris both because we love Paris and because it was an easy stop on the way to Belgium and the Netherlands, which are the primary destinations for this trip.

We arrived in Paris on a warm spring day, and after a lovely dinner that night at a French restaurant we had been trying to get to for years, we took a nice walk through the city. The Musee d'Orsay and the Seine looked gorgeous.

The next day, we went to two art exhibits. The first on the first Impressionist exhibition that took place in 1874 was at the Orsay. The exhibit included two parts: a collection of the art from that first exhibition, and a virtual reality experience that takes you inside the original exhibition and Paris of the 1870's. We felt the virtual reality experience was ok, but not really necessary and a bit cartoonish. Then, unfortunately, the exhibit itself was waaaay too crowded to actually enjoy the art. Overall we were disappointed. I did enjoy a quick trip through the museum's permanent Impressionist collection, which was busy, but not too crazy. While we were there, Shana got a great shot of Paris through the clock face, which appeared to have been recently cleaned (perhaps for the upcoming Olympics).

After the Orsay, it was such a nice day that we decided to walk over to the Picasso Museum. While we felt the newly organized Picasso collection exhibit was not the best that we have seen (and we have seen many), the relative quiet of the museum made it easy to enjoy the art, so we were glad we went.

Our second day we did two things we had never done before in Paris. First, we found Le Petite Ceinture (the little belt), a series of green areas along the outer edge of Paris that follow an old, now unused, train line. While we did enjoy walking one small section, we were disappointed by how broken up the sections were, which kept us from following the trail more, although we did take a long walk through non-touristy parts of the city we had never visited before.

Our next stop was the Grand Mosque of Paris. While not as spectacular as the mosques we visited in Malaysia, it was quite beautiful and had a fantastic garden.

We were interested to note that unlike the mosques we visited in Malaysia, the French mosque did not ask visitors to dress in full compliance with Muslin dress codes (particularly the requirement that women cover their heads). Perhaps it is the difference between a Muslim-majority country and one that is not.

Finally, as we rode the Metro to catch the train to Bruges, Belgium by way of Brussels, we had a very cute companion.

This Cavalier King Charles Spaniel was incredibly calm despite the fact that when he got on the car it was very crowded (lots of feet that could step on a little guy) -- he clearly is an expert at riding the Paris Metro.

More soon.

Jeff and Shana