{"id":140,"date":"2009-03-10T06:53:23","date_gmt":"2009-03-10T10:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forbesgrant.com\/blog\/?p=140"},"modified":"2022-01-12T08:25:58","modified_gmt":"2022-01-12T13:25:58","slug":"day-10-art-and-a-white-gorilla","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forbesgrant.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/10\/day-10-art-and-a-white-gorilla\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 10–Art and a White Gorilla"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was pouring rain on the way to and back from the gym. Still no umbrellas!<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the regular guy at the newspaper kiosk was a little annoyed when we gave him the accumulated change we had on hand, including\u00a0centimes<\/em>\u00a0(pennies) for the Hearld Tribune. (We also got grief from the manager at Robert et Louise last week for being late.) We are on sabbatical, don’t they appreciate this?<\/p>\n

I had to meet Graham Bibby at 10 at the Mus\u00e9e d’Orsay, the wonderful train station converted into a spectacular art gallery. Saw some of my favourites, a luminous C\u00e9zanne still life, for instance. A few others.<\/p>\n

There is a story here but it will have to await\u00a0our return; can’t share it\u00a0via\u00a0<\/em>the web. Interesting, maybe because it was raining, the lineups here were really long. So, while we’ve seen the quiet side of Paris since we’ve been here, at least in this popular place, there are more people around. (If you want to avoid lineups are here for a week or so, there is a 5-day museum pass you\u00a0can purchase that let’s you avoid the lines.)<\/p>\n

We had a good chat, discussed a few paintings. (For Graham’s website, see\u00a0www.gbibby.com<\/a>)\u00a0On the way home, I realized that I didn’t have to run to catch the subway train that I could hear pulling into the M\u00e9tro stop at Solf\u00e9rino. Yes, I could actually wait for the next train and I would be no\u00a0better or worse off than I would had been if I had caught the earlier train. It was liberating. Time definitely moves slower here. (Who was it in Catch-22 who wanted life to be completely boring so time would grind slowly? Dunbar?)<\/p>\n

We went for lunch at a terrific place, Le Gorille Blanc,\u00a0soi-disant<\/em>\u00a0as Cusine Soign\u00e9e et Vins de Qualit\u00e9 (meticulously prepared food and good wine), 11bis rue Chomel, just off Boulevard Raspail.\u00a0This was a real find–excellent food, wine, service and price–and we may have to break the ’90 days\/90 places’ rule for this one as well. \u00a0(There was,\u00a0en fait<\/em>, a white gorilla who lived in a zoo in Barcelona but who died a few years ago; the resto has photos of him\/her?)<\/p>\n

Incidentally, I was mentioning a number of guides the other day but forgot a series published here called Parigramme. They are fun and useful, written mostly in English. There is one called “The Best Places to Kiss in Paris” but we’ve skipped that one; we’re married after all. The one we are using at the moment is “Paris, the Second Time Around” for those who know the city, at least a little. Worth checking out if you’ve been here before.<\/p>\n

We went for a late afternoon walk (we both had work to do!) and ended up strolling around the neighborhood to pick up a few necessaries. On the way, we walked by the square at the Saint-Sulpice Church which itself has been undergoing renos for a few years, no doubt caused by the hordes traipsing through it after that dopey Da Vinci Code book was published.\u00a0There were specific guide books written for that specific purpose, hard as that is to believe.\u00a0For our purposes, however, we had to go to the legendary Pierre Herm\u00e9\u00a0shop, 72, rue Bonaparte,\u00a0to purchase a bar of chocolate, then over to Pol\u00e2ine for some butter shortbread cookies and back home for a few phone calls. Everyone has their priorities, I guess.<\/p>\n

Still no umbrellas!<\/p>\n\n\t\t