Parisian pleasures

It's been a few years since I last spent any time in Paris (apart from in  a car, on the ring road - see last post) - and I had promised myself  a few days there on our next trip to France, so I took a few days of girl time in the middle of August and hopped on a train, heading for the City of Light.  I'd taken the train from Carcassonne to Paris once before - a very civilised experience - but the SNCF were not on top of their game this time round.  First off, they had changed the train from a single storey to a double decker, so none of the seat reservations made any sense.  You would think they would announce the problem and just tell passengers to sit where they wanted, but the train staff decided to let chaos reign instead.  No fisticuffs though; perhaps the French are comfortable with anarchy in the train service.  Surprised as I was at the reaction to the seating debacle, I was amazed that people did not storm the train manager's office when he announced that, due to an absence of personnel, there would be no restaurant service for the entire journey.  He graciously conceded that water would be provided in the restaurant car - free of charge!  

And so, to the city itself.  I was staying in the Odeon district, a first for me, and a real joy.  My hotel was in a street that specialised in Japanese restaurants and book stores.  A bizarre combination, but it worked for me.  I spent my first day exploring La Defense and the area round the Bois de Boulogne -  fabulous modern architecture followed by rural bliss in the middle of a busy city, then treated myself to a yummy seafood lunch at the Brasserie Dab.  Had there not been so many other tempting places to eat within 500 yards of my hotel, the Dab would have received a return visit.  If you visit Paris sometime soon, I thoroughly recommend both the Dab and Le Comptoir, in the Carrefour de L'Odeon.  
Fitting in a movie was on my list for the visit and I managed to see Lars von Trier's Melancholia.  A bizarre film, par for the course for Mr von Trier, and one I would like to see again in order to re-interpret the beginning now that I know the end.  If I were to haiku review it, I would say:


Kirsten is depressed
The world is about to end
She's probably right!


A more uplifting experience by far was my visit to the Musee Rodin, a lovely building in its own right as well as hosting some of the most breathtakingly beautiful sculpture in the world.  I took lots of photos but thought I would leave you with just one - Le Baiser, or The Kiss.  Rodin infuses such feeling into this, that I just lose myself in the moment.

Rodin's Le Baiser.
Who would not want to be kissed like that?