Paris.....a rainy day is still fine

Today it rained, well sort of misted heavy.   Gary didn't sleep well again last night, he woke and got on the computer in the middle of night until he could get back to sleep, so we slept in, didn't end up leaving until almost noon.

 First on the list today was the great shopping of the Galleries Lafayette.  Becky and I enjoyed it so much last year we went twice.  A huge indoor mall but more like the paramount theater with gilded balconies and a huge dome above that is beyond beautiful.  Scarlett Johansson the American actress has her picture hanging from the top advertising something.  It was crazy busy being a Saturday on a rainy day and Gary got hot so I wasn't able to do the leisurely looky looing that we did last year.  I did make one trip to the children's floor to see the Baby Dior shop.....and get this, for 245.00 Euro I could buy a knit onesie for a NEWBORN!!!!  That is probably (without a calculator here) close to $400 bucks......well it was fun to see.  I took a picture of Prada's sign on the wall of their store and the guy came out and told me :NO MORE"!  I am surprised he didn't throw me out while I was in the store as I was wearing a flowery mock turtleneck from  Wal-mart (hey it was hot inside and I never dreamed when we left  freezing in the morning I wouldn't be wearing my sweater over the top)......

After going all the way to the top over 7 floors up I showed Gary the view and all the crazy shopping below outside, also a great view of the Eiffel Tower and a chance to cool down.  Many people up there doing the same thing.

We found our metro and took it to the Museum d' Orsay.  In line we met a French man talking to an American woman who helps WWll Vet's get back to Normandy at least once in their lifetime.  Very interesting to talk to them while waiting in line for probably 1/2 hour in the rain. He was born in Normandy area and told us about how 25,000 French civilians were killed in and around  Normandy during the D-Day invasion and how his family lost everything except 1 picture.  That was so weird  to hear that because as we were driving through that area I kept saying to Gary how I wondered what happened to all those poor innocent people that just happened to live there, now I know they were totally displaced for several months and came home to nothing, the soldiers took everything and in most cases the homes were totally destroyed by bombs.

 Okay back to the museum....I loved this a lot more than the Louve, which was so huge and this was a much more manageable museum.....I am not that into art history...I love art but don't really know why these artists paintings and drawings are worth more than my Mom's (I have some of her very nice paintings).....but to be in a room full of original Renoir's.....well I might not recognize them again if I saw them, but I will remember that room.

We had lunch there at the d' Orsay as well in a room I will call the clock room.....at both ends of the museum there are these huge clocks that you can see through to outside, so from inside we see the clock from the back and get to watch the little hand move, the clock was as big as the one in the movie "Back to the Future".  That clock I will remember from the d' Orsay the most......I am trying to become cultured, at least I got in an hour more than Gary who gave up and took a seat...and a nap I'll guess.

Dinner tonight was from the grocery store just a block down to the left of our hotel.  Annie did a great job putting us up here.  A store and the metro within a few blocks is all you need from your hotel....forget about a great mattress.