Paris day 1 and 2

Wed June 12 Up at 4:45 (The hotel forgot to give us our wake up call at 5). They also did not call us a taxi as we requested but a hotel employee said he would take us for he same fee. We got to our gate at 7. Boarding was delayed until 7:45. After everyone was onboard and the doors closed the captain announced we would have to sit there 80 minutes since Paris had not given clearance to land. We finally took off at 10. At Paris airport we spent at least an hour with Air France to ensure that our return leg to NY was still viable. (we had been told that if we don’t use a portion of a ticket the remaining pieces may be cancelled). We finally left the airport and got to our apt. It is very nice in the Marais district. We spent the evening walking and had a nice French dinner in the neighborhood Café de Charlot. ------------------------------------Thursday June 13---------------------------- Rain. We bought Metro tickets and went to Museum of Contemporary Art and Palais de Tokyo, which is devoted to very contemporary, cutting edge art. Unfortunately, they were under construction/installing new exhibits to open on June 21. In the rain we walked to Musee d’Orsay. The lines were very long. This was Bo’s third attempt to go to this museum. We left and started walking in the rain but went to a café for lunch. Bo ordered a sausage that she had read about. It was so foul smelling you could not get it close to your face. I swear it smelled like open sewer. I had to cover it with a napkin so I could breathe. (from Wikipedia: True andouillette is stronger in scent when the colon is used. By contrast, true andouillette is rarely seen outside France. All have a strong, distinctive odor related to their intestinal origins and components. Although sometimes repellent to the uninitiated, this aspect of andouillette is prized by its devotees.) The waiter was nice enough to take it away and bring something edible. After a 2 hour rest we went back to Musee d’Orsay and braved the line. We spent about 4 hours there visiting the permanent collections and the special exhibits, including a very interesting exhibition of Dark Romanticism art called “The Angel of the Odd”.