Paris Day Five

This morning we took the metro to the Tuileries, and visited the Musee d'Orangerie.  There was an hour-long wait, even with museum passes, and we did not have a reservation.  However, it was well worth the wait (and the extra hour that we got lost finding it).  Inside the museum were two white oval rooms where Monet's water lily panels were installed.  They were "pretty darned incredible," according to Sister Pam, and I have to agree.  They were a gift of city of Paris, commemorating the end of World War I.  The panels were huge, and breathtaking.  In addition to the Monet panels, this museum also houses some masterpieces by Cezanne, Renoir, Derain, Gaugin, and Picasso.  The current exhibit was by Klee.

Next, we grabbed a cab and met a nice Algerian cab driver who swore he did not speak English.  We didn't believe him.  Pam tried to speak to him in Swahili, but he didn't get that either.  Anyway, he got us to the vicinity of our 3 pm pastry class. We eventually found the building, which had a large engraved gold placard proclaiming that it was a "gyynecologie clinic." We found that pretty hilarious, but eventually discovered that that La Cuisine Paris was located in the courtyard of the building.  Three of us had signed up for a two-hour pastry class (taught in English) and we had fun!  We learned to make chouquettes and Paris-brest with creme praline.  The school's beautiful kitchen was spotless, and the instructor was knowledgeable and charming.

We finished up at 5 pm, and walked back to our hotel through Luxembourg Gardens.  It was cool outside and sprinkling a bit, but very refrezhing weather. 

We stopped for more metro tickets and Krista visited the boulangerie and managed to purchase a choquette (to compare to her own) and a baguette.

Jeanie, Elaine and I had dinner at a neighborhood bistro, which was quite good.  We're now in our room, getting ready for our day trip to Reims tomorrow, where we want to make sure the champagne tastes as good as we're told.  Cheers!