Moulin Rouge, Musee D'Orsay, Le Louvre

I'm writing this with a bit of heavy heart tonight - not because I'm finished my travel, but because I've just heard that the sister of one of my very good friends (Carmel) in Melbourne, died last night. It certainly puts things into perspective and once again reminds me lucky I have been to experience all this.

But the last day in Paris has been extraordinary. It started last night at the Moulin Rouge... what a show! It was all boobs and feathers, but it was alive and colourful and musical and very entertaining with lots of dancing. And the meal was fantastic! Really nice tender steak, and potatoes. And of course, we had ze wine..... Always, everywhere is ze wine....
We weren't allowed to take pics inside, in fact we had to hand the camera into the cloakroom as we entered, so this was the best I could do...!!!

Then today, I chose not to go to Versaille, because I had been there already, so I had an extreme luxury - a sleep-in! Someone said on the first on the first bus tour that this is a tour, not a holiday, and how true that was. I'm often up at either 6 or 6.30am and when we have these dinners out, by the time I've finished important things like this blog, it's often around midnight! I'm coming home to have a holiday!

Along the banks of the Seine

Then I joined up with the other Aussie girl Jan, and we hopped on the Metro and went to Musee D'Orsay - one of the many truly excellent museums in Paris.

Outside Musee D'Orsay

And what a treat it was. Now that I've got a bit of "kultcha" I can even rescognize some of the painters and their art pieces. I was walking past "The Angleus" by Millet, and I got all excited, because that was the subject of our Art webquest last term with year 4s. Here's a pic to show them, Catherine and Brad - I've seen the original now!!!!



Here's a few more masterpieces that I'm now very "au fait" with!

Cezanne - Nature morte a la bouilloire

Portrait de l'artiste - Van Gogh

And of course, I've now been to Cezanne's studio, and Arles, where Van Gogh spent much time, so it all made incredible sense. I'll be teaching art history soon (not!!)

Then we wandered back across the river to Le Louvre, where we took part in a guided tour that was arranged by Trafalgar. It was excellent and the guide showed us the parts of Le Louvre that held the most important (or well recognized) pieces. Of course, we saw the Mona Lisa and the Venus d'Milo




And many other outstanding masterpieces which are too numerous to mention now. It was a fantastic experience and one that really topped off our stay in Paris.

But now I must get ready for our end of tour dinner, at a nice little number along the Champs Elysees - Chez Clement. I'm going to upload this now, because I'm not sure how long I'll have when I return and I need to do a very serious packing job tonight!!! I'm not sure the plane will be able to take off.....

I will have time at the airport tomorrow, so I might add a few final thoughts then....

Thanks to you all for providing an audience for me - it's given me a reason to be disciplined and do this reflection each night. I've really enjoyed just jotting down the experiences of the day, and now I have a wonderful record of all my memories.

So until next time - au revoir.....!