Wednesday thru Friday AM

If I had to suggest seeing one museum in Paris that has the perfect balance (great works of art but not as crowded as Louvre etc) it would be the Rodin Museum. The majority of the works are Rodin but there are also quite a few works from his lover, Camille Claudet. The collection also boasts a spattering of paintings from masters like Van Gogh, antiquity pieces from Rodin's personal collection, and a surprisingly vast (and lurid) collection of Japanese works. The "major" highlights are two "Thinker" statues (one small inside and one large statue in the gardens) and one of the "Gate to the Inferno" (I saw one of the others at the Orsay). We've been having bad luck with museums. Rodin was closed on Monday when we tried to visit initially and the Catacombs had already closed when we tried to go Wed after Rodin.
Thursday-
After lunch Morgane and I headed to the Catacombs--big let down. Bunch of bones and some info on the old quarry and the personages now lost in the bones. I was hoping for info geared towards the resistance since the Catacombs were used as their hideout in WWII.
Next we went to the Pantheon-vast improvement on the Catacombs. After whiling away an hour on the steps of the Pantheon, eating an orange and taking in the view of the Eiffel Tower, we met up with Zoe. As we were leaving the Pantheon we decided to sneak into the cathedral adjacent to the "Civil Structure." I was ambivalent about seeing the inside of this church and shouldn't have been. Never have I been so pleasantly delighted by a church as I was St. Etienne's. Since I'm so fond of ranking things I would venture to say that it was my favorite church/cathedral I had the privilege of seeing in my travels thus far. We stopped at an intersection just around the corner from the church that was bustling with cafe's--3 on one paved peninsula and 1 opposite--and had a couple of drinks. We were interrupted midway by a street performer belting out sub par renditions of "French Classics." This naturally led to another round to brace ourselves against the musical onslaught. Our move was parried by the performer. A Boris Yeltsin look alike, apparently a close associate of the singer, had wandered up and succeeded in taking over the mike for a treacherous translation of "House of the Rising Sun." Eric Burdon was crying somewhere. Boris had unknowingly given us our signal for an exit and thus encountered a new found peace walking the streets of Paris that no manner of honks and speeding scooters could destroy.
After a quick bus trip to Place D'Italie, we wandered the tight lanes in search of an appropriate place to eat--never have I encountered a more fickle pair when deciding on a restaurant. One restaurant had a bad typeface on their menu, one was too sparsely populated, one had bad decor--on a previous evening they had deigned to inform the proprietor of "Scoop Cafe" that he should have gone with a more muted sign rather than the neon he chose. In the end we finally settled on an Italian restaurant. The food was delicious, ambiance with out par, and the neighborhood my favorite thus far perhaps (It also had the added distinction of being the lone restaurant in Paris that is non smoking). The neighborhood once was a poor area but has since become re-gentrified and I suppose "hip." It found a balance between lively activity and a sense of small town charm. As the subway headed back towards the flat off Villiers I caught my last glimpse of the Eiffel Tour ablaze in light. Thus ended my last night in Paris.
Friday Morning-
I had half a mind to recreate my first night in Paris by making the walk up to Montemarte--one last panorama of the captivating city. As I walked to the station with Morgane Friday morning, I cast a glance over my shoulder as the Cathedral on the hill and knew I was right not to revisit before I left. Perhaps one day I'll be back in Paris and in a fit of melancholic nostalgia I will make my way up the hill in the vain hope of realizing the ecstasy once achieved. Until then, Paris is wrapped in a protective case and will remain ever glorious in my memories.