The flight to Paris was uneventful and we landed in Paris Wednesday at 1:30 feeling pretty good. After arriving at the Hotel Perle, we unpacked a bit and refreshed ourselves. Connie and Clay met us at our hotel (their apartment is a block away on Princesse Street and we strolled around our neighborhood before cocktail hour at the Irish Pub near their apartment. Allan and Clay enjoyed their beer!. 
Cocktail hour was followed by an early dinner at La Cuisine de Philippe which was so French! I started with an Emmental Cheese Soufflé, moved on to fresh seafood ravioli, and ended with a salted caramel soufflé. All of us had something wonderful and Philippe, complete with his chef’s hat, greeted us before we finished dessert. We all went straight to our homes in Paris and Allan and I didn’t leave the hotel again until close to 10 AM Thursday.
Coffee and croissants began our Thursday and then we wandered from our hotel on Cannetta Street through lovely little Parisian streets to the Seine, along the Seine, and across the Pont de Arts to the Louvre. After a little more strolling and some discussion (the line was quite long), we continued our wandering to the D’Orsay Museum and spent the next 3+ hours looking (mostly) at Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art. This pointillist photo, Man At The Helm by Theo van Rysselberghe is one of my favoritess.
Allan takes photos of the pictures that we like most and plays them in a continual slide show on the kitchen computer. We have lots of favorites in these eras.
Next stop was the Rodin Museum, down Rue de Bak to Rue de Varenna and the museum. We also love this museum, both outdoors which looked like winter is still here and indoors which was warm, cozy and beautiful. We rented headsets and listened to explanations of the whys and hows of the sculptures. We learned a lot about Rodin’s trials and tribulations and his love life…a great visit. Lunch was at the museum’s café. 
One of my favorite things about many of his sculptures is that the feet and hands always seem too big.
We wandered around for at least an hour but eventually returned to our hotel for a juicy pear and happy hour before meeting Clay and Connie for an interesting one man play in the 9th arrondisement. Olivier Giraud at the Theater des Nouveautes taught us “How to become Parisian in one hour.” It was quite funny and at dinner we recognized the Parisian waiter and our American responses and laughed about how true Parisians would have handled him. Dinner at La Boussole (the compass) was long but good. I had duck with a sweet wine sauce.
Tired and anxious to get to this blog…we parted ways with the Williams and went back to the Hotel Perle.
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