If music be the food of love, play on! — John Keats.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is with either stupendous hubris or daft optimism that I unveil to you… my proposed 10-day itinerary of our vacation in Paris!
It is also with an ulterior motive that I do this: you and I will have a reference point for each daily post-card-length entry. You can do your own research (Who was “Jean Sans Peur”? What’s the Pantheon? How did the Latin Quarter get its name?) . Then when I write things like, “Windy, so no Eutelsat. 
” , you’ll know what the heck I’m talking about. Here goes!
key: museums; castles, palaces, and prisons; greenspace; churches; music; other
Tuesday, May 27: Fly to Paris [Already plans are awry: no seats left. We're going to Frankfurt instead, and doubling back, arriving five hours later than we had originally planned. Eesh! ]
Wednesday, May 28: Locate apartment and landlord, 2nd Arrondissement. Get groceries on nearby rue Montorgueil. Turtle takes Jack to final day of Foire du Trone funfair [this last plan is already scuttled since we'll be arriving so late. Not batting a thousand yet, am I? Instead, after supper maybe we'll go up the Eiffel Tower -- the crowds are thinner at night.]
Thursday, May 29: 1 000 ans du Rive Droite (1,000 years on the Right Bank)
- 10 00 Carnavalet Museum (historical artifacts of Paris)
- 11 30 Victor Hugo’s house
- 12 00 find a creperie or something
- 13 30 Cognac-Jay museum (French objets d’art, mainly 18th Century)
- 14 30 the Tower of Jean Sans Peur (a real-life “Brave Sir Robin”, for Monty Python fans)
- 15 30 Musee des Arts et Metiers
- 18 00 supper at the apartment
- 20 00 Messiaen centennial organ concert at Holy Trinity Church (where he played for 60 years)
Friday, May 30: Les Jardins à travers le temps (Gardens old and new)
- 09 00 look around the Jardin des Plantes
- 10 30 buy picnic things on Avenue Mouffetard
- 11 00 visit the Museum of the Middle Ages, including a presentation of medieval motets, and the medieval garden
- 13 30 picnic lunch in the Luxembourg Gardens
- 15 00 Bourdelle museum
- 16 00 Post Office museum
- 17 00 Jardins Atlantique; then home for supper
Saturday, May 31: Versailles, including the Grandes Eaux Musicales; home in time for supper
Sunday, June 1: Les Musées sans frais (Free museum day, 1st Sunday of each month)
- Morning: choice of Louvre, Orangeries, Orsay, Pompidou, Rodin, or Picasso; lunch at a café
- Afternoon: a different museum from the same list; home in time for supper
Monday, June 2: Chartres. See the Cathedral, explore the town; home in time for supper
Tuesday, June 3: La génie de Paris (The genius/engineering of Paris)
- 10 00 Le Corbusier house, 16th Arrondissement
- 11 00 buy lunchables in Square d’Auteuil
- 12 00 Parc André-Citroen; picnic; 10-minute ascent in the Eutelsat balloon (the following day, June 4, is the 225th anniversary of the first public flight of the Montgolfier brothers’ invention!)
- 14 00 walk along the Seine past the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower; visit the Musée des égouts; home in time for supper
Wednesday, June 4: Les Savants (The Learned Ones)
- 09 00 Notre Dame de Paris Cathedral
- 10 30 the Conciergerie and the Sainte-Chapelle
- 12 00 walk through the oldest Latin Quarter streets
- 12 30 picnic in the ancient Roman arena
- 13 00 the Pantheon and/or the Marie Curie museum
- 14 30 visit to a post office that houses a bit of the old City Wall in its basement; buy souvenir envelope there
- 17 00 home for supper
- 20 00 musical “Porgy and Bess” at the Opéra Comique
Thursday, June 5: Le 8ième (How to Spend Next to Nothing in the Most Expensive Part of Town)
- 09 00 window-shop on the rue Royale (and look for the Nicest Bathroom in Paris); church-hop the Madeleine Church and St-Augustin
- 11 00 buy lunchables at market on Corvetto Street
- 12 00 picnic in Parc de Monceau
- 13 30 Arc de Triomphe; walk down the Champs Elysées
- 15 00 Stamp Market, then the Petit Palais across the street
- 17 30 home for supper
- 19 00 Musée d’Orsay open late
Friday, June 6: Memento Mori (All good things must come to an end)
- 09 00 Père Lachaise Cemetery
- 11 00 Belleville Cemetery entrance (highest elevation in Paris); buy lunchables at market in Place des Fetes
- 12 00 picnic at Parc des Buttes-Chaumont
- 13 00 shopping, packing
- 17 30 supper at the apartment
- 20 30 concert, Duruflé’s Requiem at the Basilica St-Denis
Saturday, June 7: Skedaddle to the airport.
Posted by lavenderbay 
