France and Italy 2004

Paris, 5-11 July

We stayed the week in an apartment near Arts et Metiers Métro station. It was tiny and gloomy, and the windows opened onto a light well. It provided a base to see Paris, but that's about all that could be said good about it.
		On a corner of an apartment building near the Métro station was this lovely Art Deco concrete angel.
		Outside St-Eustache church is the sculpture Écoute by French artist Henri de Miller.

		Some of the decoration in Ste-Chapelle.


		Our second night in Paris, we went to Guy Savoy, a Michelin *** restaurant near the Arc de Triomphe. It does not look much from outside, but inside it had a comfortable series of rooms. An unforgettable evening.
		The Eiffel Tower at a distance, seen from central Paris.
		A closer view, from the garden of the Musée Rodin.
		Detail from The Burghers of Calais by Rodin.
		Modest decoration on a Paris bridge.
		The upright pyramid outside the Louvre ...
		and the inverted one inside.
		Venus de Milo in the Louvre.
		A delightful little statue in the Musée d'Orsay ...
		and a larger one by Ponpom who specialised in animal sculptures. He did this in 1907.
		It's a pity that polar bears are not actually cute.
		We enjoyed the gardens at Musée Carnavalet rather more than we enjoyed the museum.


		Notre-Dame in the afternoon.
		It was wet much of the time we were in Paris. Two typical Parisian scenes viewed from the external escalator at the Pompidou Centre.

		A cheerful bistro for our last night in Paris.
		And, to finish, a few of Lynn's ventures into monochrome.

		The art deco entrance at Abbesses Métro station in Montmartre, moved there from Hôtel de Ville when a car park was constructed.

Then is was back on a plane to reach Hong Kong.