24 - 28 January

Art.. and more art

Leaving the van behind has made us a little lazy about writing the Blog. Our apartment in Paris has cable TV and broadband WiFi, so we have had diversions not available to us for months!

Our trip on the VFT (Very Fast Train) from Amsterdam was great. Speeds of over 200kms per hour for part of the journey were an interesting experience. What was difficult was negotiating the Metro station, after our arrival at Gare de Nord, on the way to our Montmartre apartment. The only lift was out of order, meaning that bags had to be dragged up 7 flights of stairs at our local Metro station, then more up to the street and two flights up to our apartment – a total of 200+ steps dragging more than 50 kilos between us!.

Having arrived and settled in, the true value of living in this part of Paris became evident. Our afternoon walk took us through the 'arty' quarter of Montmartre, just around the corner from our place, up to Sacre Coeur, always magical, and on Saturday afternoon, humming with people.

After doing the art museums in Amsterdam just before we left for Paris, we have spent most of the past few days roaming the galleries of Paris - the Louvre, of course, the Pompidou Centre of Modern Art and the Musee d'Orsay. The more traditional museums are, frankly, becoming a little boring. Yes, they have 'must see' things like the Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa, but they just have so much stuff, it starts to overwhelm the senses. The Pompidou Centre is far from boring. Like it or hate it, modern art always keeps you on your toes! You never know what awaits you around the next corner. One of our favourites was the three totally blank white canvases on one wall. We thought it was an empty room being prepared for an exhibition. Oh no. This was “true art.”

Speaking of fun, we took ourselves off to the Moulin Rouge last night. Why not? It was just down the road, less than 5 mins walk. On the positive side, the show was “spectacular.. spectacular”, although not quite up there with the Radio City Rockettes in New York! We scored a table with a very nice French couple and had a great night. On the negative side, the cost was astronomical!

Tomorrow, we drag our bags, down the hill this time, off to Orly Airport. Destination, Valletta, Malta.