Devorah and I are finally on our first overseas retirement trip. Our hope was to make up for lost travel time in retirement. We've already gotten away a bit - a few days in Charlseton SC and a couple of local driving trips but this is our first retirement biggie.

Started out in Paris. Left Monday evening and got in Tuesday at around 6:00am local time. Went right to the hotel. Stayed at the Hotel Marignan on the Rue de Sommerard - a very reasonably priced hotel in the Latin Quarter. Address given to differentiate from the much more expensive Hotel Marignan on the Chams-Elysees. We took the train into the city and rolled up to the hotel before 9:00am. Our host at the hotel, Bridgette, was terrific. Took our luggage, signed us in, asked if we wanted breakfast and once we were settled and caffeinated, gave us the lay of the land and assured us our room would be ready by noon (which it was). Can't recommend the hotel highly enough. Nothing fancy but clean with a great staff. We opted for a room with a toilet and shower but if you're comfortable with shared facilities the rates are even better. I'll only add that the hotel has six floors - that's seven flights of stairs since they zero index and there's no elevator. Not a big deal for us but be aware.

Even though we had just landed, once we dropped our bags and had breakfast we went forth and had a full day - a couple of museums, over 10 miles walking, and some good food.

Our first stop was the Rodin Museum and garden - that is the museum in Paris and not his former home on the outskirts. We wanted to hit it since we just recently visited the Rodin museum in Philadelphia. The Paris museum is much larger. Many of the same pieces - each have their "Gates of Hell," Assorted Burghers of Callais, Balzac, and others but the Paris museum had more, also included paintings and other media and was much more spacious and expansive and since Devorah enjoys sculpture more than paintings, which I prefer, this was time well spent.

After lunch we walked across the Siene and visited le Petit Palais. Great collection plus it's free. After that we made our way back to the hotel, rested up, got dinner then crashed for the night. We ended up walking well over 20,000 steps, about 11 miles give or take.

We were going to start the day with a tour but that wasn't going to start until 11:00 so we had time to kill. We tarted with a critical pilgrimage. We had to head over to the Sorbonne to view le Tour Zamansky - yep, there's a tower named after a guy named Zamansky - perhaps a relative of mine.

Marc Zamansky was the Dean of the Faculty of Sciences at the Sorbonne up until 1970. He was also apparently a resistance fighter during World War II. When we entered the campus, the security guard indicated that we were not allowed to take pictures. I asked if he spoke English and he said "non." I tried to explain in my really weak french that I was a Zamansky and I showed him my ID. He laughed out loud and ushered us in and even offered to take the picture. It was a nice moment all around.

We then wandered the Luxembourg Gardens until tour time.

We usually try to do a free (tip only) walking tour whenever we visit a new city and since we haven't been to Paris for 36 years, it was basically new. I think we ultimately pay the same as if we do a normal pay tour but these have worked for us. The tour was great and informative and gave us the lay of the land.

For lunch we decided just to get sandwiches - cheaper and lighter than a sit down lunch and the bread in Paris is amazing. Truth be told I would have been happy just eating bread the whole trip. They also do sandwiches right - not tons of meat and gobs of mayo. It's a slice of ham, maybe a slice of cheese and a little butter on amazing bread.

Afterwards was the Muse D'Orsay. Here's the elephant out front.

Inside we found more elephants

But no Krafayis:

Really amazing museum.

For dinner we ended up at a restaurant with Basque options and I had a great cassoulet:

We went a bit further afield on Thursday, our last full day in Paris. We visited the Muse Marmottan de Monet. A converted house museum that boasts a tremendous collection of Monet's work as well as other impressionists.

They also had an exhibit on Trompe L'Oeil - art with highly realistic depictions of 3D space. Really cool.

Great museum - I highly recommend and it was much less crowded than say the Muse D'Orsay. Afterwards we slowly made our way back to the hotel.

If course we found the yarn store for Devorah:

And took a selfie as we passed the Eiffel Tower (but didn't go up):

The plan was to go to the Muse D'Orangerie which also boasts a strong collection of Impressionists and Post Impressionists but the line was too long and it looked too crowded so instead we went back to the Sorbonne and to a small Marie Curie museum. It's a two room museum plus you can look in on her lab and office. Really cool. Also 100% recommend to fellow science nerds. As a bonus, it was free.

Finally on Friday we decided to visit the Cluny Museum - just a couple of blocks from our hotel. It's a mansion museum boasting a tremendous collection of art from the middle ages.

About a third of the museum was shut at the time of our visit but what we saw was amazing. We'll certainly be back to see the rest.

After another sandwich lunch, this time in the Luxembourg gardens, we stopped by at the hotel and then off to Gare de Nord - the train station to take the Eurostar to Brussels.

That's where I am now writing this post. It's Saturday afternoon. We're spending a few days in Brussels staying with a friend so it'll be more visiting and less frantic touring. That said, we did a walking tour this morning and have a couple of things lined up for tomorrow and then Monday we'll be heading to Bruges for a day trip, mostly because Devorah wants to check out the lace center there.

Great trip so far. Looking forward to the rest.