France 2026—May 26th & 27th, Paris

May 26th, Day 6

When I told Thomas we couldn't get a reservation for the Orangerie he recommended Musee Marmottan and I'm glad he did. Turns out this is the largest collection of Monet paintings. Be sure to read the fascinating history of the museum, especially the 1985 heist by masked gunman and the eventual recovery of the stolen Monet paintings.

Because all of Europe is suffering under a heat dome, we can't take our usual long walks where we "get lost" and enjoy making new discoveries (for us) about Paris. We've had to adjust—getting out in the morning and back to our apartment by noon or a little later where we take a cool shower and wait for the evening when it's only 85F (29C) by 10PM.

It was 86F (30C) at noon when we finished visiting Musee Marmottan. We sat in the shade at the adjacent park and mixed up two electrolyte packets I purchased at a pharmacy on our way to the museum. 

By 3PM it was 91F (33C), but we were back at or apartment by 12:30PM, had another shower, ate lunch, and hung out here, waiting for it to cool down. It's 6PM and 91F (33C) right now.

We've been limited to one activity in the morning and maybe another later in the evening. Today's morning excursion to Musee Marmottan was well worth our time and effort. Thank you, Thomas!

Start kids early and they'll learn to love what makes us human.

Our RER stop is St. Michel/Notre Dame. The train and Metro making getting around
in Paris and beyond really easy. The interconnection of its all is amazing!

We purchased the grilled veggie sandwich at Paris Baguette at the end of our lane. 
This sandwich is just too tasty to pass up.

At 8PM we crossed over the lane to Gigolo's Italian restaurant. The "Welcome Book" for our apartment said we should tell Katia (the owner of the restaurant) that we were staying across the lane and she'd give us a glass of prosecco. Well, that's exactly what happened, and at the end of the meal, she offered us a cordial of lemoncello. 

One order of insalada mista feeds two. That's a marinated artichoke
decorating the salad and burette cheese, one for each of us.

The restaurant is whimsically decorated.

See what I mean? The lady bug on the fingertip is a nice touch.

Jeff and Sarah from Delaware sat next to us and we had a lovely conversation.

May 27th, Day 7

Riva Reno makes gelato in-house and they make a double espresso with hot 

milk to die for, and the croissants that are delivered each day are really, really 

yummy! We are usually the first customers of the day at 7AM.

Any of these fruit gelatos are fantastic! 

Today we just hung out at our apartment, because it was just too damn hot to get out and walk. Around 2PM we finally decided to venture out. We walked over to The Great Canadian pub again and enjoyed watching the prelims of the French Open and a beer and cider. Then we walked back to our apartment.

We took a walk over to the Il de la Cite down to the Seine, the
first time we'd been out since getting coffee this morning. It was
bloody hot again today, so we spent most of the day inside

This is Pont Neuf's arch over half of Il de la Cite.

By the way, I thought the song was "Too Damn Hot," but when I looked up the lyrics I discovered it was an Ella Fitzgerald song entitled Too Darn Hot.