the rest of the day seemed tame after that!

Well once the kids were safely ashore we started to explore the city. We crossed bridges and walked the beautiful streets. We picnicked along the banks of the Seine, had a scam/criminal type try to sell us a gold ring,had a car full of Army guys ask us to take their picture, but after the boat incident, everything else seemed very mellow. Our main stop of the afternoon was the Musee d'Orsay.The Musée d'Orsay is  on the left bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, an impressive Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1915, including paintings, sculptures, furniture, and photography. It is probably best known for its extensive collection of impressionist and post-impressionist masterpieces (the largest in the world) by such painters such as Monet, Manet, Degas, Renoir, Cézanne, Seurat, Sisley, Gauguin and Van Gogh. The special exhibition space was Degas nudes. I always associated him with the ballet dancers that Susan and I had in our bedroom at Normandy Beach, but nudes and women bathing were other favourite subjects. Seeing all those paintings in person was really amazing, like walking through an art textbook. We loved it! And the building itself was amazing.  We walked miles back to the Eiffel Tower and along the way we saw a beautiful church. We had to stop and go in, it was called Saint Clothilde. As we entered there were two men taking turns on a magnificent old organ, a dress rehersal for an upcoming concert. How amazing to stroll through the church and be serenaded by that gorgeous music. And then we finally, all  together took our boat ride. It was fun for Danny to tell us everything we were seeing.  When we arrived back at the hotel we took the kids round to the middle-eastern restaurant at the back of the hotel and they had their favourite food next to Ikea meatballs, Turkish pizza.

picnic time

National palace

cool end of bridge

Army guys who asked me to tak their picture!

entrance to the Musee d' Orsay

they said no photographs, so my rule follower, though he loved this Rodin, was not happy I took a picture!

the railroad clock view of Paris

the organ concert at Saint Clothilde

one of the beautiful altars

we passed the Polish Embassy but they didn't invite him in

on the boat

now Molly is happy!

Notre Dame from the river

this was our parking place, the black car is ours-Amazing, right?!