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The inside of the clock face on the facade of the d'Orsay station, now the Musee. Everyone wants to look out.
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Part of the roof of the Musee d'Orsay. Much of the roof is open and accessible, and covered with sculpture.
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The main corridor down the inside of the museum. All the galleries of paintings are in rooms along the sides. Unfortunately, no photography is permitted of any of the collections.
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One of the tour boat services has painted this schematic map on the wharf showing the stops that their boats make.
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One end of one arm of the Louvre, which is enormous.
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A lovely, graceful Maillol sculpture near the other arm of the Louvre.
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A really cool door we saw on the way back from the museum. The glass panels look like op art from the sixties or seventies.
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Then there was another pastry shop. There is always another pasty shop. This one looked so good we had an accident.
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The goodies here were uniformly beautiful.
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Look at the cakes on the right, and the little yellow hemispheres. We bought a small pastry for a surprising price. I'm sorry to report that it did not deliver to the tongue what it promised to the eyes.
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This shop also had quiches and cheese tarts and spinach pies, and all looked as good as the sweet pastries.
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Just down the street was this amazing dress in the window. But the interesting part was the hand.
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This skeletal hand in the window (1) is giving us the finger, and (2) has L-O-V-E painted across its knuckles. Mixed message?
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You see this sort of medallion -- Republique Francaise, or just the initials RF -- all over the place.
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That night we went to Nan's house for dinner. It's just a couple Metro stops away.
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We waited for the Metro for less than ten minutes. There are actually chairs that are clean enough to sit on.
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The Metro trains have a graffiti problem just like any American subway.
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The ads in French subways are maybe a little more interesting than ours. There were some more explicit, but I didn't happen to get pictures.
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Nan's building is a repurposed old family mansion, now a residential/office building with beautiful old-world touches like these doors.
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And this mosaic design in the floor of the entrance hall.
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And these beautiful leaded (and painted) glass doors.
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There is a large, airy, inner courtyard. Quiet. All but two of the apartments are occupied by law firms and such, and are all empty nights and weekends.
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The courtyard is decorated with more mosaic, ornamental trellises, and many plants.
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Nan came out from the kitchen to greet us.
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The kitchen is typical of small city apartments, small and efficiently laid out.
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We had champagne and entrees outside in the courtyard. It was still summer, after all.
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Our gracious hostess.
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This glove shop's display was really eye-catching. This kind of color spectrum is used for a number of products.
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The back of the Madeleine at night, from our hotel room.
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This is about as close as we got to the Eiffel Tower this trip. From the hotel, at night, we could just see the beacon on top of the tower.
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There are two caviar shops in the Place de Madeleine. They are right next door to each other.
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The next morning we finally went into the Madeleine. Being shaped like a classic Greek temple, it is a church with no windows.
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Bev went ahead and Rick took pictures
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The inside of the church is a little dark, with only these artificial lights. It is beautifully appointed with paintings and sculptures.
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There is a little natural light in the interior, coming in through the oculi in the domes.
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The floor is mainly marble of various kinds.
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Some of the chairs had new caning with shiny new paint. Note that the chairs are rigidly attached to each other in rows so that they don't get all a-jumble.
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And of course there is the obligatory statue of Jeanne d'Arc.
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Just off the Place de Madeleine, there is a shop that specializes in jeans. They have three levels of skinniness for sale.
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For men, too.
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All over Paris, sidewalks use these stanchions to prevent cars from driving or parking down the sidewalks. This one seems to have been abused by a car sometime.
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A sushi delivery scooter, with some labeling in English. Signage in English is fairly common in France (much more than I remember in Montreal).
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On the Rue St. Honore there is a new glass mart full of very upscale stores and offices.
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This shop had a lot of very heavy bracelets and necklaces and such, sort of suggestive of B&D. Their signage said Joaillerie and Bijouterie in French, and Tattooing and Piercing in English. Mmm, kinky.
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These shoes and purse weren't merely shiny, they were iridescent. Maybe the next fashion thing.
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This statue is not a mannequin. It is a sculpture made from bicycle or motorcycle chain. Magnify it to see. Very imaginative.
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We've all heard the expression, "What do you think of those puppies." Some sculptor took it literally and this art gallery is peddling it.
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One store's windows were filled with the ugliest jewelry we've seen lately. Purple and green is bad juju. We assumed it was glass, or maybe artificial beryl. Didn't bother to ask the price.