Tomorrow and tomorrow: we are happy

Anyone who started our previous post was bound to turn back when we got to the demi and demi. Apologies for all the venting and details; we were going through a brief period of adjustment time-zone wise fueled by a bottle of Rose. Although, if you didn't get far enough to read about the apricots regulating the digestive system, it is a tip that will serve you well and may or may not bear repeating.

Monday it was raining and we had forgotten our umbrellas and couldn't find any in the nearby stores, but then it stopped raining so we forgot about forgetting umbrellas. We bought a Time Out and went to a great Munch show at Pinacoteque du Paris in Place Madeline. We had been to a Munch museum in Oslo and the man seemed depressed, dark, hallucinatory and gloomy, though terribly talented. This show had many beautiful paintings and was a delight.

It's too soon to be truly craving an English language movie, but pre-emptively Paul found one at a great place called Cinema Complexe. We metroed to Bercy and walked past a stunning modern Palais OmniSports into beautiful Bercy Gardens along the Seine in the 12th, emerging at a complex of converted warehouses converted to Bercy Village, a long row of restaurants and a nicely designed Multiplex. We had dinner and really enjoyed a British movie, "Tamara Drewes" which Stephen Frears did based on a graphic novel by Posy Simmonds. For movie buffs, it's a well made film and you care about the characters; kind of like "A Fish Named Wanda" but maybe not that funny. It was strange to hear the delayed laughter as the French people read the subtitles.

Next morning another trip to the public market for more salad, cheese and melons. After lunch, we headed for the Musee Marmottan for a big shot of Monets. It appears we looked like tourists though; walking through the gardens to the Musee a friendly woman told us not to bother, it was closed due to electrical failure. So we reconnoitered and headed for Musee Moderne de Art. It was a breezy, not humid, quite comfortable 80 outdoor, but inside the delightful artwork had to compete with the 90+ degree interior temperature. This has not only blown the idea that we can always find refuge on warm days in a nice air conditioned museum, the place didn't seem to have any ventilation at all. After 5 warm days, we're pretty sure some rooms were above 90 degrees. It was built in 1967, and evidently has neither the thick, cool stone walls of old buildings nor the ventilation of modern structures.

We cooled off walking along the Seine

to the Tuilerie Gardens where we caught the Metro home. We istened to some old LP's our hosts have of Simon and Garfunkel, Bob Dylan and Janice Joplin, (must have been inherited from their parents) then Paul fixed a light dinner. Now Paul is searching our host's DVD collection for a movie with either English dialogue or sub-titles.