paris 2007

ok, so.....the meanestmamma is planning an alternative trip to paris in march/april of 2007...i say alternative because my daughter is nothing like my sons.....but even they had moments that defied conventional wisdom.....one of my favorite moments of our first trip en famille (the one where we flew to london, then chunneled to paris...) was in the palais royale gardens...watching andrew and stephan feed the remainders of their street vendor sandwiches to pidgeons......but i dgress from the 8th grade mother/daughter adventure.....i am working in a side trip to chantilly, a chateaux of the versailles-genre, on a lesser scale.....that is famous for its stables....it has a racetrack on site, and a training facility and a museum of all things equine.....seems the duc conde imagined himself as a reincarnated horse.......we will land on saturday morning....and i insist on my current favorite first day.......check into a hotel near le tour eiffel......buy museum pass at napoleon's tomb.....dart in and out of the rodin museum....mostly to see the thinker.....then walk on to musee d'orsay for lunch in the grand ballroom...all gilded and wicker and oh-so french......then a quick round of the impressionists before a walk along the seine and an ascent of the eiffel tower before collasping from jet-lag.......sunday to the gare du nord for the train to chantilly......monday and tuesday divided between the louvre highlights, st, chapelle...the tribute to stravinsky fountain, the newly reopened l'orangerie, and the new musee du quai branley.....which has a vertical garden........i would also love to take the train out to giverny, but my daughter is not into gardens......i have read that young ones of her ilk like the wax museum, and/or the sewer tour......but i cannot go that far afield........i figure that frequent stops for food will be welcome....and these will be more order-of-the-day than pleas to see one more museum........ah well....they don't make-um like that anymore..........