Thursday, May 13, le Marais

Ira went out for breakfast fare while I gingerly said hello to a new time zone. He came back with a baguette from Hure. Crispy crust and we pretty much wolfed it down in seconds. The baguette was good, not great. I'll want to taste more before we decide on a boulange for our stay.

We took the bus to get to the Eiffel Tower. We wanted to try the bus routes because then we'd see the streets of Paris rather than go through a hole in the ground. Ira did some sketching and I took some pictures. It was crowded with tourists and Africans selling Tour souvenirs, barking dog toys, and flags. The weather was lovely. We didn't bother going up because we'll get a private elevator up to the second level for our dinner at Le Jules Verne. Our next stop was just up the hill at the Trocadero. Ira wanted to see the Maritime Museum, particularly their exhibit on Le France, a giant cruise liner built in 1962 (since scrapped). The museum was wonderful, with examples of figureheads--including a giant Napoleon.

We took in a leisurely lunch at Le Coq, where we sat outdoors between two tables of beautiful French women and enjoyed steak tartare and a club sandwich respectively. Great frites of course, and the place was filled with BCBG french people.

The architectural museum was wonderful. The first floor consists of medieval remnants, and I got some great shots of demons torturing poor souls. Ira was most interested in the modern section, and we saw video on a mind-blowing bridge that opened in the south of France in 2004, co-designed by Norman Foster.

They also had an example of an apartment from the l'Habitation Unite, by Le Corbusier, a public housing project in Marseille that is justly famous for its design and ambitious scope. We loved walking through it and seeing the marvelously simple materials.

On our return, we found out the drawback of the bus system. Well short of our stop the bus shut down and everyone had to get off. Then the bus took off again. We didn't find out what was the matter, but we walked the rest of the way home, stopping at a cafe that overlooks the Centre Georges Pompidou for a cooling ice cream. My god the weather has been wonderful. I wore my sunglasses all day. There's rain coming next week, but for now, the skies are blue and warm.

Before returning home we shopped for dinner tonight, just some pates and cold items that we'll eat at the apartment and rest up for tomorrow.