8e Arrondisement
Le Petit Palais as opposed to Le Grand Palais?
Last night, I had a very good sleep and drifted off listening to some French couple arguing on the level below me. The walls are very thin... Woke up to Frantz's alarm going off in the next room quite a few times. Finally, he woke up and I joined him for some coffee and toast in the kitchen. he went off to work and I washed the dishes. Then, I washed myself up and went out. Beautiful, but cold, day!
I walked around aimlessly this morning until I found a metro (An image of the "Easy" button just appeared in my head: "That was easy!") I bought a weekly metro ticket and hopped on a train-- honestly having no clue where it was going to take me-- I ended up in Place de la Concorde!
I took a round about to the Champs Elysees until I reached Le Grand Palais: long line to see this train exhibition so I crossed the street and went into a smaller but equally beautiful building, le Petit Palais. Free exhibition today! One point for me...
I have to say the place was such a pleasant surprise. It was amazing! And all gratuit... I saw Monets in real life. I could practically reach out and kiss it if I wanted to (and promptly be dragged out by the museum guards). The best part was the diversity of the exhibitions. With museums, I can get bored fast if there's no variety. But Petit Palais had everything from ancient Greece to Modern and Contemporary. They even mixed in the contemporary with the classics under the same theme... really refreshing.
I spent forever in there. I had to drag myself away. Afterwards, I wandered into the left bank's 7th... always nice. I know it might be a tourist trap but the environment was so beautiful. Narrow alleys, cobblestone, boulangeries everywhere... I found myself right in front of Cafe Constant which I heard about before and so I decided to try it out. Turned out to be well worth it...
