Off we go about 10:30 to the Musee d'Orsay. You won't see any pictures because picture taking of any type in this museum is forbidden. Outside of a special small area in the Lourve, this is the first museum we have encountered where you couldn't take pictures.
The Musee d'Orsay was OK. The top two of the four floors are under renovaiton and we suspect that most of the treasures up there are still there and have not been moved. However, we did see some great Van Gogh and Gauguin paintings. We saw only a few Monet paintings. Also, we saw a lot of the dot painting by the renaissance painters. We were in the museum for about 2.5 hours.
Now we're off to Saint-Chappelle. We encounter our first escalator down to the RER train station. Imagine that. No 70 stairs down. Saint-Chappelle was built by the Louis IX who is the only french king to become a saint. We even have a city named after him - St. Louis. This church was built to house the crown of thorns. It is a classic gothic church. Reportedly, the king paid more for the supposed crown of thorns than he did to build the church. Our museum pass worked great. They came through single long ticket line looking for pass holders and we went directly inside. Here are a few pictures.
We then decided to walk to the cheese and chocolate places. They were in the Latin Quarter and only about 6 blocks away. We went first to the chocoate shop. Mary was not pleased on two fronts. First, the sales people, were inattentive. They don't even acknowledge that you are in there. They're stocking shelves and talking to each other. We have found this in several business establishments in France. Second, Mary didn't see anything special about the chocolates. We left to look for another shop. However, there was one thing in this shop that just blew us away. Here's a picture.
Chocolate Gorilla
We left this chocolate shop and headed for Fromagerie DuBois. Laurent DuBois has won the title of best cheesemaker in France. (They don't call them cheesemakers in France but I can't find the word. I want to say they are called "refiners" but I'm not sure). This was a treat. We were after some cheeses for daughter-in-law Lora who loves cheese and has French cheeses in her European grocery store in Lawrence, Kansas (called Au Marche). Here are pictures of the cheese shop.
Yes, Lora, we did buy some cheese. They vacuum pack the cheeses and we are supposed to put them in checked luggage and not our carry-on which should be a clue. We'll have to be cautious coming back into the U.S. But, we'll see. We've got the cheese in the small refrigerator in our room. It will be the last thing packed just before we leave the room.
Now for the big treat. The lady in the cheese shop recommended that the best place for chocolate in Paris was La Maison du Chocolat on Boulevard de Madeleine. We went to the Madeleine metro stop and OMG escalators and elevators - a second rare treat in the same day. We did find the chocolate shop and here is a picture of Mary outside the shop. Great chocolate.
Back onto the metro and back to the hotel.
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