SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2008

No laundry, no shopping. It does happen every few days. After a late breakfast, we went off to a very fine museum. It is called the Carnavalet and it is located in the Marais not far from the place des Vosges. The museum was a luxury town house of the 16th century, with a typical French center courtyard, and was once home of Madame de Sevigny,who wrote detailed letters to her daughter that tell of Parisian life in the late 17th century. It is the museum of the city of Paris and has exhibitions about the history and culture of the city.

We didn't visit the whole museum since there is so much to see that we limited ourselves to only a few of the sections. The fact that the museum is free allows one to revisit many times. One of the exhibitions we enjoyed particularly was a series of cartoons by the cartoonist, painter, and sculptor Honore Daumier. The cartoons, maybe fifty in all, all dealt with the summer heat and swimming.

There is also a room that has a number of scale models of various neighborhoods and monuments of Paris dating from before 1900. In the same room there were models of old trams, street signs, etc.





Finally, we went out into the gardens which are beautifully done in typical French garden style. The rose bushes were exceptional.






In the evening we went to a very nice small bistrot near the place de la Bastille. It barely had fifteen tables and there were just two men working the front, the boss and an assistant. The meal was lovely, but the service was a little slow since it was one of the first Saturdays after thye summer holidays and people came out in droves. We were there from about 8 pm and left after 10. When we left all of the tables were full, many diners having come in after 9:30. The restaurant was le Bistrot de l'oulette on the rue de Tournelles. They have a bigger, fancier one elsewhere in Paris.

A long day but a good one.