Museum Passes

We told ourselves that we didn't need museum passes.

In a way it was a promise we made to ourselves: no hard-core touristing, trudging from museum to museum. Rather we promised to do significant things that would mean more and linger longer than standing and staring at a framed masterpiece on the wall surrounded by hoards of others staring at the masterpieces on the walls.

We told ourselves that we wouldn't spend our time that way.

But when the two weeks of our trip were winding to a close and we found ourselves in Paris again, the blue skies clouded up, and the rain began to fall. Climbing the towers of Notre Dame or walking the streets of Montmartre in such weather had little appeal.

So on a cool, rainy day in Paris in July, we walked up Boulevard St. Germaine and bought museum passes after all. Because it was seriously raining. Because museums were what the rest of the day would hold.

Now, I don't say this in a complaining way. We enjoyed them all -- the Musee de Cluny, the Musee d'Orsay, the Rodin museum. At the Cluny we saw the heads of the Kings of Judah of Notre Dame that angry mobs had decapitated during the Revolution. The Orsay had enough art inside to quench any thirst. And as we gazed on Rodin's Thinker in the gardens outside his house (from the dry comfort of inside), he looked more pensive than normal as he sat motionless in the pouring rain.

But let's just say that as Trudy walked thru the halls of the Cluny, stopping to look at each tapestry and every piece of Middle Aged antiquity, Ben and I had a feeling this was going to be a long day. And by the time we lay ourselves down at the end of the day, we collapsed into deep sleep, because on that rainy July day in Paris with our museum passes in hand we had looked ourselves to the bone.

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Trip to France - Day 14
Paris

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