Last night Marthese and I pretended we were young and ventured into the Paris evening. We started with a lovely dinner at a French restaurant and then settled on the lawn in front of the Eiffel Tower with hundreds of other tourists and Paris locals enjoying picnics and bottles of champagne. As we brushed aside hustlers thrusting alcohol bottles in our faces, the sun slowly sank behind the tower, until we could eventually see the (surprisingly) tasteful lighting the tower receives of an evening. Very romantic, despite the fact the sky refused to darken until after 10pm. The days are long here in Paris.

A visit to the Musee d’Orsay was on the cards today, and Marthese and I took lessons from Rick Steves on neo-classical, impressionist, and post-impressionist art. The huge building used to be a train station and was refreshingly bright and easy to move around despite the crowds. Monet, Cezanne, Manet, Degas, Renoir – all had a plethora of works on display. There were a few Van Gogh’s on show too, but some of his major works seem to be temporarily exhibited elsewhere. Marthese was fairly excited at seeing the originals of works she’d had postcards of as a child, and we both discovered the cool sculptural works of Rodin and got a little into the soap opera of his love affair with his apprentice that ended with her in the madhouse. (No photos allowed, so not many pics, but just as well, was a treat to just enjoy the art.)

The weather drizzled a little, finally, and my attempt to break into the closed Musee de l’Orangarie was unsuccessful, so we shopped a while in the cool (but touristy) arcade below the Louvre.

We have a very French evening planned – we just booked tickets to watch the American film X-Men: Days of Future Past (with French subtitles of course). Au revoir.

Click here for more photos from Paris Day 7.

Click here for the full Paris album.