Paris Day 7

Our last day in Paris we all went our separate ways to try to fit in the last couple of things we each wanted to see.  My dad and I went to L'Orangerie first, which is a smaller art museum that has some amazing works of art.  My favorite part was two oval rooms that were completely lined with Monet's Nympheas panels (part of his water lily paintings).  It was pretty awe-inspiring.  There were also works by Cezanne, Renoir, Modigliani and many others.  It wasn't very crowded and the size of the museum was just right; I didn't feel rushed to see everything and it wasn't overwhelming.

We then walked through the Tuileries Gardens and went back to the Louvre for a few more hours.  We split up there so that my dad could take many more hundreds of pictures (I think his total for the day was over 700).  I managed to fit in everything I hadn't seen before-the Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Near Eastern sections.  I also checked out Napoleon's apartments and the decorative arts section, then made my way to the gift shop.  There are actually several gift shops at the Louvre, and they all line a large hallway, at the end of which is the inverted pyramid you may remember from the end of The Da Vinci Code.  Was I perhaps in the presence of the remains of Mary Magdalene?  Hmmm . . .

Everyone met up after that for lunch and then my dad went back to the Louvre to take even more pictures, while the rest of us went to the Centre Georges Pompidou.  It's this really neat building that is kind of inside out.  There are visible pipes everywhere, both inside and out, that are color coded for water, electrical wires, etc. and there's a glass-enclosed escalator on the outside of the building that was cool to ride, but unbelievably hot inside.  The Centre also houses a large modern art museum.  They have a section that they redo every two years with new art and artists and then a permanent collection as well.  I'm not a huge modern art fan, but there were many great paintings there, including the Chagall painting that was in Notting Hill. 

I then went to a grocery store to get some fun treats to bring home with me (best place to get gifts to bring home to people, in my opinion) and then went back to the condo.  I messed up my right foot somehow during this trip and I didn't think I could stand any more walking around.  Even cutting the day a little bit short, it was still a great ending to a great trip.