Today we'd be spending more time exploring Paris. Once again we'd be using the hop on hop off bus for sightseeing. We had a booking to go to an art museum at 11:40am.
It was another cool cloudy morning. The forecast said there might be showers at times. We left the hotel at about 10:15am and were just in time for a bus outside the Big Bus office. We got off the bus at the fourth stop just outside the Musee d'Orsay.
Suzy had prebooked tickets for the Van Gogh exhibition at 11:40am. Although we had arrived much earlier than that, they let us in. In fact, we walked straight in without having to join the very long queue that most people were enduring.
The museum is in a building that used to be a railway station. It is a grand building with a huge arch roof. Inside there are statues and paintings from famous artists such as Renoir, Monet, Cezanne, Gaugin and many others I'd never heard of.
The first part of our Van Gogh ticket entitled us to a virtual reality experience. They sit you down and place a device on your head. When the video starts, you see images of Van Gogh's work, his studio, his palette, etc.
The scenery floats in front of you. You are supposed to reach out and "touch" items and interact with what you see. From time to time a colourful bird flies around you. The whole experience lasts about ten minutes. I don't know how they do it but it's amazing.
Next they ushered us into the exhibition of Van Gogh's paintings. Once again we were able to walk straight in without having to join the very long queue. There was room after room of his work.
There was more artwork on the upper levels - mainly impressionist painters. By then it was time for lunch and so we went to the restaurant on the upper level.
We left the museum at about 1:30pm and got back on the bus for the trip back to out hotel. We managed to get seats on the upper deck under the canvas roof. Although it rained most of the way back, the sun came out just before we got off the bus. We were back at our hotel at about 3:40pm.
Suzy wanted to go shopping and I wanted to go the Louvre Museum which was only 5 minutes walk away. I didn't go into the museum. I just took photos from the outside in the plaza. I wasn't the only person taking photos. The ground was wet but it wasn't raining. In fact the sun was shining brightly.
For dinner we tried to book at a different restaurant recommended by the hotel but it was booked out and so we went back to the nearby Bistrot Richelieu again. It was very crowded. They squash you in - the tables were very close.
Suzy ordered a dish off the blackboard menu but they brought her something different because they'd run out of that dish. She rejected the dish they brought and ordered something else. Not impressive.
We were back at our hotel at about 8pm and had coffee in the lounge area downstairs.
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