So does anyone know about Mizzle??

1) Corner of sculpture court;
2) Somewhere in the French section;
3) Can’t forget Mesopotamia!
4) Looking down from the painting floor into sculpture court;
5) View of I.M.Pei’s Pyramid entrance to the Louvre from the 2^nd floor;
6) (If I can get 6 pictures in one blog…) Sacre Coeur in the distance; French flag in the foreground; from inside the Louvre.

Allo! Allo!

Woke up to a rather wet and gray kind of day – found out listening to a cricket match in OZ that it’s called “mizzle” -- combination of mist and drizzle. Not coming down hard enough to warrant an umbrella, but not the kind of clear air we’ve been so used to! In looking at the weather reports, it looks like we’re going to have to play each day by ear through the end of our trip – if it starts out dry, we’ll go somewhere we can walk; if it starts out wet, we’ll try yet another museum (of which Paris ABOUNDS!) So…there you have it!

Had some routine household chores to do this morning; cleaning the bathroom, catching up on a backlog of dishes, etc., which I did while R did some work for Caltech. It is REALLY wonderful having the wifi here in the apartment, so that we can log in at any time and work for as long as we want – without paying extra! (Two years ago when we were here at the apartment for a month, we used the computer from the apartment over the telephone line, and the cost was astronomical; somewhere approaching $200…)

Managed to gather ourselves together about 10:30 and headed out toward the Louvre. (After all, haven’t been there since last Thursday, so we were obviously “due” for a visit!) Took the bus there and it really wasn’t too cold out at all! Very mild! Once inside (Passage Richelieu works really well!) and with coats checked, we decided to try to once again find the Islamic arts, which we’d missed last Thursday…wound up and around, then back down – the Louvre can REALLY be a confusing building! Finally found our way to the section – only to come smack up against a locked and gated door, with signs posting that the Islamic arts section is closed, as they are reworking it, and check back later – no timeframe given. Figure if it’s anything like when they reworked Egypt, it may be 2 or 3 years before they’re finished! So…then headed up to the top of the museum, Richelieu wing, to look at European painting from the 15^th – 18^th centuries…Well, anyone who knows me well knows that I have a VERY short tolerance for what I call “flat art” … paint on canvas. And there was a LOT of paint on HUGE canvases up on the top floor! Poked around for an hour or so, and then decided that lunch was calling us … not a floor I would highly recommend, actually, although the architecture was interesting…

Decided to try the Café Richelieu on the first floor; have never eaten there before. Small room, VERY high ceilings. I ordered a curried chicken salad sandwich, which came with chips – it was DELICIOUS. R ordered their velote des legumes (vegetable soup) which came with homemade croutons and bread. It was excellent too, (although not as good as R’s veggie soup, but then maybe I’m just prejudiced? Also, no tomato sorbet in the middle…) Also a nice carafe of white Bordeaux; excellent! For dessert, I had an excellent warm tarte tatin (apple tart) with cream, and R had a fresh fruit salad. Very good! (I would have taken pictures, but the room was REALLY dark and we didn’t think they would come out!)

From there, R wanted to check once again to see if the History of the Louvre parts I and II were possibly open. He has seen it twice, and I’ve never seen it at all! It has always been closed when I’ve been by there! And voila! This time it was open! Fascinating look at the Louvre as a building and an area. There are small models that are really interesting of how the buildings were laid out over the centuries; when things were added, then things were taken away. Along with that were busts of some of the kings of France, as well as paintings and drawings done over the years that included the Louvre! Really a nice display, and I don’t know why it is usually closed when we go by! (Could it be personal, we ask ourselves?)

From there we had a good look around the Louvre shop, and R bought a small terra cotta replica of a Mesopotamian tablet; not sure where it’s going to live, but he wanted it! We left through the Carousel du Louvre, and I stopped at Resonances to pick up some bubble bath I’d spotted earlier … wish I could use it here, but no luck; shower only!

Decided that we wanted to look at some stores on Rue de Rennes as well as hit Bon Marche for food, so we caught a bus up that way. Nice poke around through the shops; lots of fun things to look at; fortunately, we didn’t find anything to buy!

Bon Marche was good for chicken breasts, yet another jar of raspberry jam, potatoes, haricots verts and arugula (rocket lettuce) for the last of the braseola. Caught the 86 bus back, which deposited us a block from the Pantheon – convenient, as we needed to make yet another stop at our wine shop, Caves du Pantheon! Finally mounted the steps (figuratively, you know, as there is an elevator as we’re on the 6^th floor…) and collapsed from yet another busy day!

I slept the rest of the afternoon away; not at all sure what R did! Decided for dinner that we would make it light, after our filling lunch. Had braseola salads yet again (if ONLY we could find it in Tucson, but we can’t!! Closest place so far has been Southern California!!) and finished up with a chunk of incredibly wonderful Roquefort cheese and fresh baguette – YUM! Will have the chicken tomorrow night!

So that’s it for today’s report! Not too many pictures, but promise more for tomorrow!
Much love,
m