This post is a couple of days old – my apologies – but SU doesn’t seem to allow blog posts from mobile computers, though editing isn’t a problem. I’ll create some placeholder blog posts ahead of this one, so as to avoid future problems. We now return to our regularly scheduled blog post…
SU is more in denial of my getting older than I am: It won’t let me change my age to 32, or for that matter, even change my nationality from American – grr! (Done now, whew!)
Well, since the Parisiens have opted not to celebrate my birthday in traditional French fashion (by rioting and storming public buildings) I took it upon myself to go all Froggy anyway. I treated myself to a fancy French meal (at fancy French prices… Oh la la!) of smoked salmon salad, chicken and rice in morel sauce, and tarte tatin, then spent a good part of my afternoon spent lying prone in order to digest it all.
Luckily, virtually everything is closed today, so I don’t feel like I’m missing out. I did begin my Great Museum Run of ’07 with the Nuit des Musees last night, which proved slightly disappointing. The Orangerie has been hugely renovated since last I was here, and they’ve sucked all the soul out of the space. Where the main collection was formerly housed in an old wood series of rooms, it’s now in a concrete basement. Luckily, Monet’s waterlilies are still beautiful. And the other museum I visited – the Carnavalet, which chronicles the history of the city – promised traditional Parisien songs, but instead of a big crowd singalong, we were limited to two rooms and serenaded in instrumental form by an employee with an accordeon. No different than you’d get on the metro at any of the main stops. Still, I had fun doing a Big Walk from my apartment down the Tuileries, then up rue de Rivoli into the Jewish quarter – you could hear Sabbath chants through the closed doors. Tomorrow I may break my promise to myself, and head over to the hated Louvre to see the Praxiteles exhibition.
Tough life, eh?