25 January 2009, Sunday—I planned to purchase a 4-day Museum Pass to use starting on Monday to avoid the weekend crowds. On Sunday I wanted to visit some of the free museums that didn't require use of the Pass; the City Museum of Modern Art and the Petit Palais.
I also wanted to check email. Fat Tire Tours, a bike touring company located near the Eiffel Tower, advertised that they have Internet stations and other services so I checked them out as well. After a filling breakfast at the hotel, I picked up a Vélib' bike and rode across and along the Seine. As luck would have it, on Sundays the Seine road was reserved for people without cars. What a concept! It was cold and early and there weren't many people on the road and it was great to cruise along enjoying the views from along the river.
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| Hemingway's apartment on Rue du Cardinal Lemoine | Quays reserved for bikes and peds on Sunday | With my Vélib' bike |
At Fat Tire I checked email (€1 for 10 minutes) and bought a phone card (€7 for about 60 minutes). Winter is a slow time for bike and Segway tours but there were a few people gathered for the next bike tour. I then picked up another Vélib' bike and tried to find the Marmottan Museum. I forgot to bring the address but knew generally where it was located and thought I wouldn't have any trouble finding it. This is a general character flaw, a sense that things will work out and then at the last minute, realizing that no, I really don't have the information I need and things won't work out. When this happens I usually try to rationalize that it's not the end of the world so it's OK anyway. As you might suspect, I never did find the museum. None of the people I asked, who were very friendly and helpful, had heard of it.
Instead it was a chance to explore another part of Paris west of downtown. I parked the bike and walked along the edge of the Bois de Boulogne, finding another Vélib' station and riding along the excellent bike trail (separate from the sidewalk) parallel to the road that extends around the perimeter of the city.
Since I had some free time and I was in the neighborhood, I decided to stroll along the Champs Elysee from the Arc de Triomphe toward the Palais Royal. Even though it was Sunday and many of the shops were closed, the very wide sidewalks started to get crowded later in my walk. There were surprisingly few bikes on the road and none on the sidewalk. Traffic was hectic and there are quieter parallel roads nearby.
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| Houseboats on Seine | Champs Elysee on Sunday morning | Bus/bike lanes |
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| High heels and cellphone | Bus/bike lanes | Two-way bikeway |
The Petit Palais was a short walk but I was tired and picked up another Vélib' bike and rode there. While there is no admission fee for the galleries of the Petit Palais, a ticket, picked up near the entrance, is needed for the permanent collection. They have a good collection of paintings although the Impressionist section was closed due to lack of staff, which was a common theme throughout the week, which culminated in the museum workers strike later in the week.
Lunch was a hunk of cheese (from breakfast), nuts, and raisin juice, breaking the no-food-in-room rule back at the hotel. I was discrete and neat, making sure to remove my trash to be deposited outside.
After another Vélib' ride, I visited the City of Paris Modern Art Museum that had surprisingly good works, with few of the boring color field-type paintings that lead to empty galleries at DC's National Gallery. I especially liked paintings by Francis Gruber and the calligraphic abstractions of Jean Degottex. The plaza outside the museum was a popular hangout for kids with skates and skateboards, being annoying and making lots of noise but also providing some entertainment in an otherwise sterile space.
In this hilly neighborhood I had to search for a while to find a bike. In areas like this it's so easy to ride bikes downhill and not so easy to replace them by riding them back uphill, so they tend to accumulate on the downhill sites. During the day there is a crew that hauls bikes from some of the downhill Vélib' stations to those located on uphill sites.
Rue_Montorgueil is a narrow street located not far from the hotel, across rue du Louvre. There are many small restaurants that line the street. I had a very good light dinner of cheese bruschetta with olives and a small salad (€8,50) and a large glass of wine (€7,70) at Le Centre Ville.
I was having a hard time sleeping for more than 4 or 5 hours. A solution for me was to take about 1/4 of an Excedrin PM after waking in the middle of the night. This was usually enough to allow me to get back to sleep for a few more hours.