We’ve made several trips to Paris, so we didn’t feel the need to meticulously plan out every attraction and every minute of the trip; we thought it’d be more fun to be spontaneous. And it has been, as yesterday’s post proves (if you follow my blog from Facebook, you missed yesterday’s post – Facebook deleted the link I posted there, claiming “it looks like you tried to get likes, follows, shares or video views in a misleading way”!)

But today, spontaneity had its price: more than an hour in line waiting to get into Museé de la Orangerie while people with reserved time slots whizzed past us. We were lucky, though – rain was in the forecast, but we only felt a little light drizzle while we waited.

Once we got through the line, we had plenty of time to see the entire museum. We spent a good part of that time contemplating Monet’s Les Nymphéas (Water Lillies), along with hundreds of new friends (only a few of whom were standing in front of the paintings while posing for Instagram). I took a few photos myself, but it’s really hard to take a good picture of the huge canvasses; the iPhone’s panorama function helps, but only so much.

We had lunch at the museum’s cafe – it wouldn’t have been my first choice, but leaving the museum was out of the question! Again, planning ahead would have helped….

After lunch, we explored the Heinz Berggruen exhibition; Berggruen was an art collector who had to flee Germany in 1936 because he was Jewish. He was in the US Army during the war and became an American citizen soon afterwards, but moved to Paris and opened a gallery specializing in modern art before eventually returning to Germany and opening the Berggruen Museum in Berlin, stocking it with his personal collection (he described himself as his own “best customer”), some of which was on exhibit at L’Orangerie. There was a lot of Picasso and Klee in the exhibit, like this portrait of George Braque (otherwise known as “Homme du Chapeau”) by Picasso.

I enjoyed the permanent collection (the Walter-Guillaume collection) more than the Berggruen exhibition. I especially liked the Utrillo paintings depicting Montmartre, like this one of Èglise Saint-Pierre, one of the churches we visited yesterday.

I also was taken by Utrillo’s “La Maison Bernot”, even though we didn’t see that building (and I don’t know if it still exists).

We made one more visit to the water lilies before leaving the museum; our timing was good, because it had rained pretty hard while we were inside, but there was just a little mist on our walk back to our Airbnb. The views from and of the Tuileries Gardens were, as usual, very nice; I was glad we were there while the landscaping in honor of the Olympics and Paralympics was still on display.

We returned to the apartment and noticed people working at the Louis Vuitton offices next door. A few people were on computers, of course, but most of the people we saw were sewing (or maybe designing).

We walked over to the local Westfield shopping center (Les Halles) so I could buy a Magsafe external battery for my phone. It was drizzling as we walked over, but absolutely pouring when we were ready to leave; the weather app said that the rain would end within the hour, so we spent the time looking for a place to have dinner. We’d passed Au Chien Qui Fume (The Smoking Dog) a couple of times and their menu and reviews were promising, so once the rain stopped, we walked over and had a delicious (and probably far too caloric) dinner.

Then it was back to the apartment to charge my new battery, and off again for another evening walk along the Seine, passing Èglise Saint-German L’Auxerrois on our way there.

And now we’re back in the apartment. There was a loud peal of thunder as I sat down to write this post, and lots of rain to accompany it – but it seems to have stopped for now. And so shall I.

One of the things I really like about Paris is the specialist food shops; this morning, we visited the local greengrocer and bakery to put together a simple, fresh, tasty breakfast. After breakfast, we headed to the Metro for a quick trip to Abbesses station to join Paris Walks‘s Montmartre walk.

Our guide Brigitte took us on a gentle walk from Abbesses to Sacre-Coeur, stopping frequently to show us points of interest or discuss many of the artists, filmmakers, performers, and writers who have lived in Montmartre over the years.

We started very near the station at the “I Love You” wall, with over 300 versions of “I Love You” in over 200 different languages – even Braille (but, since it’s painted on, it’s not useful for anyone who needs Braille).

Van Gogh lived in this house – Theo van Gogh, that is. He was Vincent’s brother and an art dealer who somehow never sold any of Vincent’s paintings (Vincent sold exactly one during his lifetime).

We got our first sight of the famous Moulin de la Galette on the next segment of our climb, and got much closer to it a few minutes later.

We continued with a brief stop at The Man Who Could Walk Through Walls in Place Marcel-Aymé, where Brigitte told us the story.

There’s a statue of Saint Denis, the patron saint of Paris, in a park a few minutes farther along. It depicts him immediately after his martyrdom as he walked through the city holding his head in his hands until he found the place where his cathedral should be built. As Brigitte said, “he had a very bad hair day that day”.

Not everything we saw was historic; we made a brief stop outside La Maison Rose, which apparently is important in “Emily in Paris”. I haven’t seen the show, but the crowds outside the restaurant (which was closed) seemed to be happy to be there.

We took a quick look at the oldest church in Paris, Saint-Pierre Church, which dates back to the 12th century CE. Diane and I went back there after the tour so we could go inside, and I’m glad we did (though I don’t have any interesting photos from the inside).

Our final stop was in front of Sacre-Coeur. Guiding is not permitted in the church, so Brigitte bade us farewell and left us to choose our own adventures for the rest of the day.

We walked back to the Square of the Artists, which is lined with restaurants; local artists set up shop there and sell their wares. We had lunch at Chez Eugene, which was OK, especially for a tourist area, but not exciting.

Brigitte had taken us past the Museé de Montmartre on our tour and said it was one of her favorite museums in Paris; she’d been such a good guide that we decided to take a look and wound up spending most of the afternoon there. It was in a house that had been occupied by many artists over the years, including Utrillo, his mother Suzanne Valadon, Renoir, and more. They’ve restored Utrillo’s room and Valadon’s studio; there were also lots of paintings to enjoy, as well as posters highlighting Montmartre’s role as a bohemian hub of activity (and as the home of the Paris Commune of 1871).

We walked back to Abbesses station; along the way, we took a look at Saint-Jean Church, which was the first reinforced concrete religious building in France.

As always, Paris Walks delivered a great experience, and I was glad we had time to explore Montmartre afterwards.

We walked back to our apartment and then headed out for dinner at Rarita, a nearby Italian restaurant we’d passed on our walk home. It was very very good; we had the 21EUR prix fixe dinner along with a half-bottle of unpretentious (and fairly inexpensive) Bordeaux.

We hadn’t had enough walking yet, so we set off for Pont Neuf after dinner and got our first view of the Eiffel Tower for this trip. We were there at the top of the hour, so the Tower was sparkling just for us!