Stay in Paris

I arrived in Paris on Thursday evening, October 11. The photo below was actually taken today (Sunday), but it's kind of a cliche for Paris, so here it is!

I walk to work from my hotel because it's only 12 minutes down the street!  I spent Friday at the research lab with my colleagues.  Several of us went out to lunch at a typical small truly old fashioned French restaurant, and then I worked til early evening.  I raced back to my hotel, which is really tiny apartments (I have a kitchette, which is great for breakfast and suppers).  I ate a bit of dinner and then went off to the Louvre, which has Friday evening hours til 9:45 pm.  I will write a separate entry on that visit as I have tons of photos of the Islamic pottery and tiles I took (there was a special exhibit on Islamic art).

My weekend has also been taken up with art exhibits, one at the Palais Luxembourg on the Modern Art Club based in La Havre in the early 1900s (I have more photos from there) and a visit to the Rodin museum today.  I also have a few photos because you cannot take photos except in the garden and it rained cats and dogs today so while I toured the garden it was hard to take photos in the wet and the cold.

Last night was a special treat.  I have tried to get opera tickets many times, but usually that's impossible.  However, before I left this time for Europe, I managed to get a ticket.  The opera was the Marriage of Figaro (sung in Italian with French subtitles above the stage).  I had a wonderful seat on the main floor towards the back, and because the seating is well sloped, I could see everything easily.
The opera was standard full length of 3.75 hours including .5 hour intermission!

The opera was well done;  the sets and costumes were not as elaborate as I saw with the Met or with the opera in Sidney, but still very nicely done with one scene where the stage went back 20 feet to accommodate the actors and dancers.  The singers were very good.  And it's an opera for which I know many of the arias, both solo and duets.  Since the opera was in Italian, and the translation was to French,  I didn't understand much of it, but enough that I could follow (and I read through the story of the opera before I went).  That was useful because Marriage of Figaro is opera buffa with lots of people hiding in closets, masquerading as other people, etc.  All in all it was a wonderful evening.  My hotel is on a Metro line that goes straight to the Opera Bastille in 10 minutes time, so I was home by 11:35 despite the long performance.