The hotel provided a shuttle service that would drop us at the Arc de Triomphe at noon with a promise to return at 6 PM. It’s Autumn in Paris, cool and slightly overcast, and we thought it would be the ideal day for for a stroll along the famed Champs d’Elyse. Champs d’Elyse is all about money and the people who have it to spend at places like Cartier and Lois Vuitton. It’s also a good place to find an ATM—Euros quickly disappear in Paris.
With the cloudy skies we decided against trekking to the Eiffel Tower and settled for a photo across the Seine. As we passed La Place de la Concorde and Les Invalides, we had to dodge a bevy of beret wearing tourists driving along in antique Citroen 2CVs, the famous “deux chevaux” or “two horse.” Oui, this must be Paris.
We actually did have a destination, the Musee d’Orsay, one of our favorite art museums. Formerly a train station, Gare d’Orsay, most of the top Impressionist painters are gathered there; Messieurs Monet and Manet, Renoir and Degas, Pissarro and Sisley, Toulouse Lautrec and Vincent Van Gogh plus Mademoiselles Morisot and Cassatt. It’s one of the best ways we could think of to spend an afternoon in Paris.
We were more than a little piqued—but not terribly surprised—when our promised ride back to the hotel never arrived. We waited until 6:30 then descended into the packed Paris Metro for the rush-hour trip to CDG airport and a bus back to Roissy-en-Ville. While Connie went to the room, I vented my spleen to the desk clerk in a combination of poor French and profane English. C’est la vie.
