Paris in the spring!

Today is French Mother's day and voting day for the referendum. I didnt really take part in either.

Last weekend I did not write because I went to Paris. I managed to get to the Musée d'Orsay and just as I reached my favourite Degas's sculpture of the young dancer, the whole museum had to be evacuated because somebody had left their bag and did not reclaim it! We did not manage to have lunch at the restaurant there neither. I was not a happy camper! I had been looking so forward to having lunch at that beautiful room.

I managed to get to the Pompidou Center too - in fact stayed all of Monday there. (I almost forgot that I had a drink with Leigh and caught up with each other's news outside the Pompidou.)  This is because I met Marianne one of the ICHIM team. She is the one sorting out arrangements in Paris.She said the team were having the first meeting that night so I stayed and caught a later train - the overnight train. We went somewhere called Horses Tavern - it was in an upstairs room and I had to be carried up. It was good to see the Berlin team again and meet the new ICHIM Paris team!

cont.
I did not have time to write more than a skeleton of events last week-heres more of a detailed report but not too much because I need to write last week's events.

French bread displayed in a Parisian boulangerie window

Musée d'Orsay is a wonderful museum. The signage leaves a bit to be desired - its not so easy to find the lifts/elevators but if you are lucky, you might get to meet one of the people who are there to help with disabled visitors-who will give you specific directions. Apparently they do not want the general public to use the lifts so they are well hidden away.

Ditto for the Pompidou. It is not obvious but there is a special access/entrance for wheelchair users into the Pompidou at the side. The main entrance is down a steep slope. The lifts are situated on the exterior so that they afford a magnificent view when you get up high enough. However, when you get out, it's not clear how to get back into the main bit of the museum itself! I figured in the end that I should turn left and go to the end of the corridor-towards where the escalators come out for the general public. The restaurant is right at the top - a beautiful place to sit and gaze at Paris up high. The prices are equally high though!

We also managed to visit Meng Tze and Robert and their new baby, Rohmie. Estelle, their first born is old enough to take a photo of all of us. It didn't seem so long ago when I visited her and her mother when she was new born.

One month old Rohmie!


Estelle at the keyboard!


And one of the grown ups!