Last Day in Paris

We had a marvelous day today, spent mostly at a huge new Monet exhibit at the Grande Palais.  The exhibit contains more than 200 of Monet's paintings reassembled from all over the world (including a few we have seen at the Chicago Art Institute).  It was so amazing to see some of his series of paintings all together so that you can see how the light changed over the day and the seasons and how he painted it.  Of course, one of his most famous paintings, "Impressions," which ultimately gave the painting movement the name "Impressionism" was not there because of a feud between the curators of this exhibit and Impressions' permanent home, also here in Paris.  Ah well.   A gorgeous exhibit (sorry, no pictures allowed) and we were really tired afterward. 

So went off to a good (late) lunch, including a wonderful profiterole.  We are adjusting to the Paris fashion of 2-hour lunches. 

We walked around a little near the Grand Palais.  Here are a few gold plated pictures, especially of the Pont Alexandre III, one of the most beautiful of the many bridges in Paris.  The dome in the background is over the Hotel des Invalides, which holds a military museum and Napolon's tombe.  Actually, there are about seven caskets inside, each one smaller than the other.  No fear that he'll get out.

Then we walked around our new neighborhood, near Gare St. Lazare.  We went to the top of Galeries Lafayette (one of the great department stores in the world) to see the panormic view. 

Now we're getting ready to fly to Istanbul tomorrow morning.  We leave our hotel at 6:30 a.m.  We're looking foward to seeing the Marys, Betty, Mary Kay and Claire, Bev and Mary when we get there.  Safe travels to us all!