More Tales from Paris 4

The mystery of the missing tooth and the tattooed woman will be forever unsolved. Mike's dream was evidently a one-off. Never mind. Other things considerably more interesting happened today. We discovered the RER. It's a combined metro and overland service. 

We went to Austerlitz Station this morning, from where we'll be returning home. From there we wanted to get back to the Eiffel Tower to pick up a Bateau Parisien for a guided tour on the Seine, which was included in our Paris Pass. We've travelled around on the Seine previously by Bateau Bus which provides a regular pick-up/drop-off service. So we'd seen a fair bit of it already. But today's trip was a non-stop. To begin with we thought we'd have to travel back to the Eiffel Tower on the mètro, which would have involved us in several changes. But then Mike spotted a direct line by RER so we plumped for that. Even better we were also able to use our Paris Pass travel ticket. The RER train is a double-decker with upper and lower seating. Really straightforward and we arrived in time for the 11.15 tour, along with most of the Chinese, Korean and Japanese holiday fraternities. The boats are big, so even though there seemed to be a lot of people on board, there was plenty of space. Good fun, lovely day for a river trip, plenty to see along with interesting and often amusing commentary. The Seine was pretty busy as well, with industrial barges as well as tourist boats. We ended where we started at the Eiffel Tower and took off for our next destination, stopping for a bite on the way. 

Why are omelettes so good over here? We've tried a few leathery specimens in the UK, but the ones we had at lunch time were just delicious, accompanied a little fresh salad on the side, a glass of rosé and some bread. Just perfect.

A chunk of the afternoon was spent at the Musée du Quai Branly and I must admit not having a camera was so frustrating, because we found ourselves at one of the most exciting spaces we've been to in a long time. None of the guide books do it justice visually and the write-ups are quite mundane. In fact it is an extremely important centre, exhibiting indigenous works of art from Africa, the Americas, Asia and Oceania. The exhibits are of breathtaking quality and variety, and are presented in simply wonderful building. Even their website doesn't give an idea of how dramatic the place is, inside and out. Walking up to it you become aware of a huge transparent glass frontage, behind which is a superb garden, through which you walk to get to the entrance. The website link is to a series of videos which give you a glimpse of the building and some of the exhibits. It's worth having a sift through. Once you get into the building a gently spiralling walkway takes you up into the exhibition areas. But as you walk up a river of words flows down projected on to the walkway surface. It's quite fascinating, because the words change direction, merge, separate and undulate as a real river would. We were so impressed by the museum. By the time we came out we were rather brain weary. So much to see and to try and take in. Once outside we crossed over the main road to have a quick look at a major photographic exhibition that the museum has launched. Like the rest of the programming, the photographers come from all over the world. Photoquai began in 2007 one year after the opening of the museum itself. So far it has promoted over 200 photographers, whose imagery reveal details about people and place which cannot be seen unless you go to the countries such as South Africa, Iraq, Panama or Nepal. Terrific stuff.

From there we headed back to the nearby RER station and made our way over to the Rodin Museum. It's a gorgeous place.Lots of work being done to it. Think it was closed for a while. A few people about, so having stuck our head inside the main house, we thought better of it and kept outside in the garden, where the sculptures seemed more at home. It's a real haven in a very busy city. So glad we went.