Paris 2008 - 24 Juillet

Jeudi - We decided to go back and view the Musée Guimet today. We had no sooner boarded the 63 bus, than a troop of twelve to fifteen children were brought on by their day care supervisors. I had no problem with the kids, but one of the supervisors, who was seated directly behind me, would not shut up. It was bad enough that she keep her mouth moving the entire time until we got off a stop or two ahead of them, but she was extremely loud.

We walked up to Musée Guimet only to find a long line waiting to get in. We decided to take a walk around the area. In the distance, a few blocks, I saw an interesting building tower and thought we could have a look, but we never got there. Robb was feeling hungry and we came across a nice bistrot just across the street from the Musée Galliéra, I'm not certain but this appears to be the main entrance. At bistrot Galliéra, we sat on the café terrasse. I had fish-on-a-stick and Robb had salmon. Never heard of fish-on-a-stick you say? Well, actually, it was a brochette de Perche. A brochette is usually beef, pork or veal on a skewer with peppers and onions, but at this place they used perch. It was very tasty. Just across the street is a tiny litle "park" with a statue of Rochambeau.

After our delightful repast, we walked back to the Musée Guimet, but the line was still rather long. I was beginning to think we would either have to come back another day or just forget it. Then I noticed a sign pointing up the street indicating the existence of the Centre Culturel Allemand (the German Cultural Center), so we traipsed up there. There wasn't really much of interest. They had about a dozen posters for movies/sports and that was it. We checked them out and went back to the Guimet (be sure to check out the visite virtuelle). If you click on "le version plein ecran" under the words "Michel Urtado" you can see the virtual visit in full screen mode. The line had dwindled considerably, so we joined at the rear and found that the cause of the long lines was a security checkpoint just inside the door.

I don't know if you can get a feeling for the size of the place from my exterior picture, but it is huge. There are five floors and it covers most everything one would consider Asiatique: India, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Japan, etc. By now, I was pretty tired, so we only wandered around the main floor, but even that was quite large, with room after room of mostly statuary.

Plus à venir, mes amis.