Up early today with final packing and cleaning to do before heading to CDG. Woke up early and that meant plenty of time to finish packing, clean organize and get out the door. Usual Metro line 1 to Chatelet with long walk over to RER B for the airport. Train stopped at terminal 1, so had to catch another shuttle to Terminal 2. Got pulled aside for carry on weighing, Air France’s rules are ridiculous at 12kg or 26.4, for combined weight of your personal item and your roll aboard. I went through the initial boarding pass check into the weight area and managed to scoot out the side un-weighed…. Phew! Haven’t checked a bag in 20+ years don’t want to do it now, and this is why I strongly prefer to fly Delta, which has no weight limits on cabin baggage. Amazingly, 6 automated passport machines were not only in use but working! Got through that and then security now has a new procedures. Everything goes into a bin, but the French have finally figured out that X-rays see through things making removing your toiletries and laptops superfluous. This seemed to more or less speed things up. I think from curb to lounge was about 40 minutes. I paid an extra $100 to use the AF lounge, but this one in the K terminal is pretty small, and not up to the usual standard by any measure.

Final day in Paris today, so lots of housekeeping details to take care of. Packed my bag that goes into the storage space and then carried it up to our storage space. From there a quick look at the Marche des Enfants rouge, which burned earlier in the month. Then to the Musee des Arts et Metiers, which had a special exhibit on the Statue of Liberty as well as their standing collection. Lunch at the always good Le Compas on Rue de Montorgueil with S and J. Then home for some packing and then to meet friends for dinner at Bistro Augustin, which was very good.

After coffee, headed over to the Jardin du Luxembourg to visit a few things. My Grand Palais+ membership got me into the museum where there was and Andy Warhol exhibit. Didn’t realize that he had done anything other than soup cans. Over all, didn’t find it very engaging. What was fun was seeing the old carousel where we used to use a stick to try and get rings as it turned around, nice to see this still going on! From there walked over to Montparnasse and had a nice lunch at La Coupole. After lunch headed to the resistance museum. Lots of text and reading, quite interesting, but after a certain point, reached saturation, there are some old bunkers underneath, but not well curated. Headed over to Odeon for dinner and met some very nice younger French guys and we shared some wine and food.

Today was a really solid day. I got an early start and was at the Orangerie right when the doors opened at 9:00am, through security in a couple of minutes. Went downstairs for a lot of Monet timeline etc. From there, off to the Madeleine briefly, then back for coffee and a break and then met L and J for lunch at Brigade du Tigre, an excellent Asian fusion type place. After a tasty lunch, headed up to Montmartre for a wander around and then back to the apartment to regroup. Then headed out to try Septime Cave, a wine bar associated with one of those restaurants that you can never get in to. Another one of those natural wine places, the Grenache was decent but the Pinot noir was pretty vinegary. Quick stop in at one near the Bastille on the way home that had a champagne maker there and was celebrating a birthday, very friendly. Another solid walking day with 20,000+ steps put in.

Clocks in France got set back an hour last night, so that made an early start easy. Woke up to a nice, crisp and clear day, so I hopped a bus over to the Orsay and arrived just as the members line opened at 9:00am, half an hour before the public is admitted. Went straight to the Mary Cassatt special exhibit which was very interesting. She was an impressionist, but almost exclusively painted people and not landscapes. After that off to the Bastille market for a ham and cheese crepe. Eventually off to to meet friends for lunch at Pl. Honore, followed by a long walk almost all the way back to my apt. (18,000+ steps) Some oysters for dinner and that was the day.

The whole city has been preparing for todays protests and, at the last minute the route was changed to start at Porte d’Italie and go to Vincennes. This put it substantially away from the center of town. Reports are the Paris protests were largely peaceful right until the end. I had a late start, went for coffee and then met John R. For lunch at a lovely place he found called Le Petit Pointoise, luckily about a 15 minute walk away in the 5th. The authorities had closed 24 metro stations for the day, so that made getting around difficult, also all of the museums were closed as well. While it is a little cold and damp, I think the fact that it started raining fairly heavily late afternoon, probably put quite a damper on the protests. I went to my favorite speakeasy, but took 3 different metros to get there versus the usual one train. Still didn’t take much longer so all in all it did work. Tonight at 2:00am the clocks change back an hour here, a different schedule than the USA. Supposed to rain a fair amount all night.

Some kind of gathering on the bridge.

Fall weather is definitely here and it is chilly and off an on rainy. The whole city is preparing and bracing for protests scheduled for tomorrow. Lots of boarding up, lists of many metro stations that will be closed, making getting around the city challenging. The current protest route is listed as going from Bastille to Nation, which is away from where I am. It is supposed to rain starting mid afternoon, so hopefully that will lower attendance and reduce the number of fires. My understanding is that the army has been called in to reinforce the police to avoid a repeat of last weekend. I did some computer work in the morning and then went for a walk towards Bastille and around that neighborhood, settling on lunch at Brasserie Bofinger, one of the old school grand Brasseries. Had a small version of a seafood tower which hit the spot well. Afternoon walked up to Pl des Vosges and walked around there. Somehow even thought I didn’t do much I managed 16,000+ steps! Evening headed for an apero at Le Meurice and then went to Verjus to see if I could meet the nephew of one of our Wonalancet neighbors, no luck there.

A slow day today, I was feeling under the weather so stayed fairly close to home. I did try to go to the Pinault modern art museum, managed to get my membership renewed, but the incompetence of their admittance procedures meant that after standing around for a considerable period of time, it just was not worth the effort. A quick lunch at Melt Deli and then downtime for the afternoon. Dinner and cocktail with friends was fun. Everyone is bracing for the next round of protests scheduled for Saturday. Forecast is for rain, which will likely be helpful

After coffee decided to head to the Musee des Egouts, the Sewer museum. Interesting system with different types of tunnels, but give the general odor, not somewhere I wanted to linger. Headed over to Rue Cler and had a good lunch of duck confit at le Petit Cler. Then over to the Rodin museum where I renewed my membership and walked around the grounds until a pretty decent thunderstorm came through. Headed to the nearest metro station and got home somewhat soggy. Then it was over to Le Hibou to meet some people from a group of Francophiles. Brief hang out and the over to Le Compas on Montorgueil for dinner. Hopped the metro home before the announced 8:00pm closure of the Les Halles station. As far as I can tell, the City is still keeping its 11:00pm-6:00am curfew on Les Halles and Republique in place. Didn’t hear of any damage or issues today and really didn’t see much in the places that I was.

Rainy and chilly this morning. After an interview with Annie at Join Us In France, headed out for coffee and then to the Grand Palais to see the Cezanne exhibit. Membership card allowed me to skip the lines and it was a fairly extensive exhibit. Then headed towards the Bourse but the Pinault is closed on Tuesdays. So, found lunch, decided to give the Pied de Cochon another chance and lunch was quite tasty. Headed home for a breather and then out for a cocktail with one of the owners of Le Peleton, coffee shop. A quick bit at the local Asian deli for dinner and back home for some downtime.