Saturday 23 July 2011

Last night the neighbours across the way had a Friday night party! It started at around 10pm and I was awake at 5am when the last ones left! Not a good night for me but everyone else slept well! I must be too sensitive I think.

We rose early this morning as we had a big day planned. We had pre-booked a canal boat cruise commencing at 2.30pm and we thought we would spend the morning at the Musee d’Orsay gallery. Jane and Paul went there 10 years ago and thought it was great. We sorted out our route for the Metro (2 trains) and off we went. Arrived at the gallery around 9.40am and there was only a short queue which was good. Entry was €8 which we thought was pretty reasonable.

It’s hard to describe the feeling of walking through room after room of old masters – Monet, Dega, Van Gough to name just a few – paintings and sculptures. Some of the paintings were so familiar and to be able to view the original was quite mind blowing. The colours and light were amazing. It was so very special for all of us and we found it hard to drag ourselves away at 1pm. It was a thoroughly uplifting experience and I would recommend it to anyone who goes to Paris.

When we came out of the gallery the heavens opened up. We donned our coats and set off dodging the showers and the puddles as best we could. We had to get 2 trains to Port de Pantin where we would pick up our canal boat. It was quite a long trip and took more time than we had bargained on. Once we left the train we had to walk through an area called La Villette towards the canal. We arrived with about 5 minutes to spare and needless to say were glad to sit down. As an aside, we hadn’t had any lunch and expected to be able to buy food on the boat. Unfortunately this wasn’t to be so we spent the next 2 ½ hours sufficing on a peppermint and a toffee!

The canal trip was great! As I mentioned it started at La Villette which is 26 metres above the level of the Seine and meandered its way through a number of locks through pleasant areas in the outlying area of Paris down to the centre of the City. We were all fascinated with the process of the locks which are controlled by a Lock Keeper. On our boat the captain only had to manoeuvre the boat into and out of the locks and the Keeper did all the rest. Another feature of this trip was that the canal travels under the Bastille for 2.2ks through a low wide tunnel. There was a sign at the entrance that said “you may only be in this tunnel for 18 minutes – do not stop”. Kev thought we probably took around 10 minutes on our trip and we were travelling quite quickly. The tunnel had subtle lighting and as well there were natural lighting via a type of port hole in the ceiling which were around 2 metres in diameter. There would be no room to pass another boat in this tunnel and I suspect it was controlled by some authority or other that we didn’t know about. We finally reached the Seine and cruised down past all the landmarks to the wharf at the Musee d’Orsay – almost outside where were started from at 1pm. We all agreed the next order of the day was FOOD so we set out to find some! We ended up in a lovely wee restaurant in Rue Le Bac which was not far from the Musee. The young waitress did her best to impress us with her English and we had lots of laughs agreeing on what meals we were to have etc. We ended up having early dinner at 6pm!

Altogether a full – exhilarating and pretty exhausting day but one we will remember for years to come. Tomorrow it’s the finish of the Tour de France and we are hoping the weather will be kind. If it is we will take a picnic lunch and go and watch at the Jardin des Tuileries so if it’s sunny we have somewhere to sit and some shade cover. We are not considering the rain option as yet.