Paris, day 3

Saturday morning begins with our wake up call at the proper time. We figured out how to do it automatically through the phone system thereby eliminating any human error. We are up and out by 11. We stop off at a wonderful patisserie for breakfast, then a cafe on St. Germain for cafe and cigarettes. By this time I am chain smoking like a mutha fucker.
hmmmm cigarettes.
We decide to follow the Seine down to the Latin Quarter and hit the shops of Ile St. Louis. We stop off at the Musee D'Orsey because we are walking by it and there aren't any lines. I really had no desire to go to this museum. Working at the MFA gave me plenty of opportunity to see impressionist paintings. The building, however, is what won me over. It is truly worth the price of admission. It is the old train station with a cavernous barrel vaulted ceiling. And I will admit to seeing work that I otherwise wouldn't have. Manet's Olympia, lots of great Lautrec's that were phenomenal and a very gay painting of Jesus and the apostles which was "supposed" to be Plato, yea right. I'll post a photo of it and you guys can be the judge of that one. It took us an hour and a half to get through it. We stopped and had lunch at a Canadian themed pub. They had an Ontario radio station playing with hockey on the televions. Lunch was very mediocre but we had beers which helped.
We decided to head over to Notre Dame. Walked through and was suitably impressed. The Catholic in me forced my hand and I gave some change to the nun sitting by the door. C was pissed at me for that one.
We moved on to the Ile St. Louis. This turned out to be my favorite part of the city. It is like Beacon Hill on an island two hundred years before the yuppies moved in. Lots of cheese shops, butcheries, and art galleries. I'll post a couple of photos.
From there to the Institute of Arab culture and through the Latin quarter to the Pantheon and the Sorbonne. We then walked down to the Luxembourg gardens and back up the Rue de Bac to our hotel to rest tired bodies before hunting for dinner.
Dinner was another trek. Back across the river towards the Place de Concorde. We were on the hunt for a place to have cocktails before dinner. No luck. We eventually ended up over by the Hotel Normandie across from the Louvre. We had dinner at a place called the Cafe de Montegrosso. It was an Italian restaurant. We sneaked in without reservations much to the Matre de's consternation. Shortly after we sat the place filled up and he bagan turning people away. The place was fabulous. Food was amazing. Service, not so much. I was lucky to have the wall seat which offered up much in the way of people watching.
We headed back to the hotel satiated and a bit drunk. Finished the night at the hotel bar.

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