la butte de Montmartre

IMG_0135
Originally uploaded by funkyj.

coming down from Sacre Coeur

Eurostar: this friendly french student was returning to Lille where she is studying after a weekend at home.

As usual, I've forgotten her name. She told us that she normally took a less expensive commuter train from Calais to Lille but because of a strike she had to take the Eurostar today.

She explained to us how rich retiring Brits are saving (?) small french villages by buying quaint cottages in the french countryside and thereby pumping money into these otherwise withering small towns. One side effect is that you find as many foreigners as natives in many of these town.

Eurostar; one of our very polite and friendly servers. 

Eurostar: here you can see the leg room Amy has 

Eurostar; A freight train broke down in the tunnel and we had to wait for 30-45 minutes on the english side of the chunnel while the problem was being resolved.

On this day, luck was on our side as this delay coincided with the first class leg of our round trip.

Eurostar: Amy with mimosa ingredients. 

Eurostar menu, detail 4 

Eurostar menu, detail 3 

Eurostar menu, detail 2 

Eurostar menu, detail 1 

Eurostar: inside menu 

Eurostar: lunch menu 1 

Eurostar, London to Paris, first class. The food was pretty good. Much better than airplane food. Lots more elbow and leg room too. There were 2 red wines, champagne and mixed drinks included in the cost of the ticket.

We bought coach class tickets for the Paris to London train and first class tickets for the London to Paris train. Eurostar rocks. I wish I could take a Eurostar from SFO to Paris...

She just picked the book up off the shelf and she is already half way through it. Talk about speed reading, and in a foreign language too! 

We saw this film on opening day at cinema in Les Halles shopping mall. It was pretty good despite the absence of english subtitles. 

Outside Musee D'Orsay; this is suppose to be a 10 second video clip. Will picasa/hello/bloggerbot handle it properly? We shall see.

A still picture from the beginning of the video but no video on the blog. Oh well.

Musee D'Orsay; damn tourists! They spend so much time taking pictures of things they probably never actually see anything with their own eyes. Sheesh. 

This is the beginning of the sunset we didn't see from the top of the Eiffel Tower. We wanted to see the sunset from the tower but we got there too late (a mere 70 minutes before sunset). The next day when we did go to the top of the Eiffel Tower it was too cloudy for a sunset. 

Musee D'Orsay; we are soo damn cool! 

Musee D'Orsay; this guy is actually looking at the picture on the LCD monitor of his digital camera and sketching from that.  

It is quite remarkable to see paintings like this without any glass between you and the painting. I betcha never seen a picture of Van Gogh's self portrait from this angle before :^)

Be sure to click through and see the full size version of this picture. Much more texture shows through.

Musee D'Orsay: Some italians taking a break. If you look closely you can see the italian flag and the word 'guida' on the paper in the young woman's hand.

The Musee D'Orsay is big. Not as big as the Louvre but still really big. Luckily there are some chairs in the gallery. 

Musee D'Orsay; The pastel art pieces are kept is sparsely lit rooms, presumably to preserve them from fading. Perhaps when I read through the Orsay book I bought it will expound on this topic. 

Musee D'Orsay; listening to the electronic audio guide. 

Musee D'Orsay 2