i know a place we can go, dear

Today I had a fantastic adventure and saw a new side of Paris that I actually really enjoy.

I woke up at a little after nine, and decided to have a relaxed morning before my excursion to the Musée Marmottan Monet. I made coffee, had a delicious breakfast of cake with butter and jam while watching Judge Judy, and then got dressed to go out. The museum is all the way in the 16th (literally falling off of the metro map of Paris), and I was a little nervous taking a new subway to the edge of town. At almost 11 I struck out on my journey.

It's Saturday so the metro was packed. I was on the one towards la defense so there are always tourists. At one stop a woman ran onto the train toting a portable speaker. All of a sudden I heard music on the car, and looked over to see the woman singing into a microphone. A first for me. I saw a lot of metro performers today.

I got off the one and transfered to the nine. It was a nice train with air conditioning and a lightup map of the route which had blinking lights to show which stop it was approaching. I got off at La Muette and hit the street. The 16th is a beautiful area. It's what everyone pictures when they dream of Paris. The streets are trash and dirt free. There are people happily muching pastries with their children. Merchants are smiling. You would never get pickpocketed in this part of town.

I made a wrong turn initially, but corrected myself and was able to find street signs pointing to the museum. The Musée Marmottan Monet is by far my most favorite museum that I've been to in Paris. This is another one of my "if you're ever in Paris"s. I only paid 5 euros because I showed my student ID card. Also, the museum has a coat/bag check. My kind of a place.

The museum is in an old hunting lodge, and has the decor to match a very rich 18th century person's vacation home. Marble sculptures, Egyptian pieces, Greek pieces, family and child portraits. It's astonishingly beautiful, and was reasonably empty. I was able to get within inches of paintings with no one disturbing me. There was one Japanese tourist with the dreaded cellphone, but he didn't bother me at all.

We can sit here and talk about how beautiful Monet's paintings are all day (trust me, I would like to), but something else about the museum struck me. They have a collection of pencil caricatures that Monet drew. It was so nice to see a new, funny side of the artist that I didn't know existed. He was humorous, and in one drawing you could see where he had erased the woman's neck to change its placement. Absolutely fascinating.

There is also work by Berthe Morisot and a large collection of illuminated manuscripts if you're interested. I made an unusual stop at the gift shop to buy a postcard and a bookmark. For a euro 70 I got two great mementos of the museum, and will be able to send the postcard to myself in California as another memory of my trip.

After the museum, I planned on going to a garden. The area is filled with beautiful parks and miniature gardens, and I had walked through a children's park on the way to the museum. It was so idyllic and quiet early in the morning. When I returned in the late afternoon there was a vendor selling crepes and other snacks, and lots of children playing and people out sunbathing.

I followed my directions, and didn't see any signs of the garden I was supposed to go to. I passed numerous parks and squares that all had pretty flowers and park benches bathed in light with a slight breeze. I stopped at one to have my lunch (potato chips that I had brought with me as a snack). One area with soccer fields and there were tens of children at soccer practice.

I decided to keep walking around because it was such a lovely day and I was having such a nice time. I found more parks; all beautiful and picturesque. After a few minutes I saw something in the distance. There was a lake with people sunbathing and racing boats. I sat for a few minutes watching a man play with a motor powered boat before I moved on. I walked around the whole lake, stopping periodically to sit down and enjoy the day.

I left that lake and crossed to street to another expansive park. This park had a waterfall with people canoeing in the lake. There was also some kind of riverboat that took people to a building on the other side of the lake. By this time it was late afternoon so I decided to head back.

I found my way back to the metro like I had been living there my entire life. The metro home was insane. There were so many people I was down to my karma (in the words of Jim who works at the Accent center). I navigated the metro like a true Parisienne and never once looked at my directions. I even grumbled when I saw the platform of people waiting to get on the one.

I got off the train and walked home like nothing ever happened.

This has been by far one of my best days in Paris. I will be going back to my new spot very soon.