The places we went.

We got up and out and had breakfast on the run – a crepe with lemon and sugar for CB, one with fromage and oeuf (cheese and egg) for SI. We got on the bus and went to Musée D’Orsay again. The line was long, but not as bad as the other day, and after only a few minutes a guard told us that we could go right in a special door since one of us was a petite fille (little girl.) We had no idea we’d get such special privileges but we were very glad not to wait!

At first we couldn’t decide what we wanted to look at. We tried to find some of the paintings on our art cards (from our game) but were feeling impatient and grouchy (and a bit tired!) So we went to the café, even though we’d just had breakfast, and we ate again. Then we decided to sit in front of some paintings we really liked and copy them in our sketchbooks. We painted for a while with our watercolors, but a guard told us we couldn’t do that, so we took out our colored pencils instead. We each copied one Monet and one Morisot. SI thinks it was the nicest time we’ve had so far on this entire trip.

On the way out we looked at all the sculptures of naked people. CB was very interested in looking at their “ritz bits”- that’s their private parts. SI tried to explain something about the allegorical meanings of the sculptures, but CB didn’t seem to be listening!

After that we’d planned to go to the Louvre but we both agreed we’d had enough of art for a while, and SI really needed to run around. So we got on another bus and went to Le Jardin du Luxembourg again. SI wasn’t feeling very well so she sat on a bench and painted quietly while CB found a black cat to pet, American children to play with (who by the way were from Connecticut!), and also made another painting. It started to rain very hard, so we went under a shelter for a while, got CB some more candy, and then left.

After a late lunch at McDonalds, we walked all the way back, stopping to shop here and there, and at last we visited the Musée de la Moyen Age, the museum of the middle ages. We spent a lot of time looking at a very famous, very old tapestry, The Lady with the Unicorn. The different panels show the five senses, and the sixth one is called “My Sole Desire.” Nobody knows for sure what that one means. We drew some scenes from that one. Then we went to the gift shop and bought lots of cool presents.

It wasn’t too far to walk home from the museum. We went past Notre Dame, as we do every day, and talked about what we’d think of it if we lived here and always saw it. Would we get tired of it, or always notice how amazing it is? CB says she would like to live there and see it every day.

Here are some things we’ve noticed about France. France looks a lot different from the US. The houses are much closer together. The streets and sidewalks are much narrower – it’s hard to walk side by side holding hands. The ambulances and police cars have a different kind of siren. Even the toilets are different!

We only have two more days here – the trip has gone by very fast! PS sorry the pictures aren't very clear - we just took photographs of our paintings and they are a little blurry.