Decided to go on to Musée d'Orsay by crossing the Seine. Queues there prohibitively long, so decided to go on to the Eiffel Tower. Chanced upon the Musée Rodin adjacent to Les Invalides - an impressive structure. Queues at Tour Eiffel also prohibitively long so only took photos.
Wanted to get back to Rodin/Orsay museums by taxi, but a counter-terrorist exercise at the Seine prevented us from doing this, so had to walk a fair way before getting one to the Rodin. Once there decided we really should go to the Orsay given state of feet, but relented after a coffee and entered the Rodin after a short queue. Good that we did because we could buy a combined Rodin/Orsay ticket for a reduced price, but more importantly, for a faster entry to the Orsay.
The Rodin was great (thanks Shonaugh, for recommending it) and we had a nice lunch here too. We walked to the Orsay and got in after only ten minutes of queueing. Fortunately, despite renovations, a good number of impressionist works were on display. A beautiful building, strangely reminiscent of a railway hall.
Except for the next few, the rest belong to tomorrow.
We were still concerned about the Louvre, so decided to go back to the Carousel (a fabulous underground shopping mall, with the inverted pyramid) to see if we could get tickets for tomorrow. We were devastated to discover that the tobacconist was still not open. This is important because you can only buy tickets for the day at the Louvre's own ticket office. On a whim we decided to walk around the Carousel to the inverted pyramid again, and were thrilled to discover that the Virgin store right next to the Louvre's underground entrance also sold tickets. This saved the day and a train journey. We celebrated by having a coffee and a snail at McCafe - good snail, coffee a bit small.
After returning for a well-deserved rest we headed up the mountain to Montmartre for a view and a meal. We were disappointed that the Eiffel Tower did not light up on schedule as advised by a passer-by so we looked for a restaurant and found Chez ma Cousine where we had a very nice meal of country pate and beef bouguignone with a damn good bottle of house red.
On our way back we were delighted to see that the Eiffel Tower was lit up after all. It's panning searchlight makes an other-worldly sight on the photos.
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