June 5 by Donna

I know this is the great RUSSIA trip blog, but we have to start with a sight diversion to France.  When we realized that our best connection was through Paris, I couldn’t imagine stopping there without seeing our friends, so we left a day early in order to have a little extra time.

We arrived after a smooth flight and only a few hours sleep to our hotel, the Best Western Champs Elysee (very French sounding, eh?).  After a quick shower we headed out to meet up with Lianabel’s daughter, Anyuli, and her boyfriend Fabien.  We met at the magnificent, old Madeleine church in central Paris, where we unfortunately waited on one side, and Anyuli on the other.  Since we didn’t have a mobile phone, being CDMA users ourselves, we nearly gave up when suddenly they appeared, having realized to come look for us.   We ate a typical French lunch – well, we did, having salade nicoise and croque monsieur, while Anyuli and Fabien had burgers!

It was great to catch up with Anyuli who is doing an internship for the UN and working on language translation, and to meet Fabien, who is a student in IT.  Both seemed to be doing very well.

It was amazingly hot – high 80’s – so we already started getting worried that we will have a broiling vacation.

We then walked over to the Orangerie, one of Paris’ gems of a museum, recently renovated, and met Guy who was holding us a place in the queue.  Together we visited the museum, which is best known for its very large wall paintings by Monet of water lilies.  They built the museum around these paintings.  They struck me as quite a turning point in art, falling right between the prior generations of realistic art and the coming generations of abstraction.  We also saw the amazing collection of art collector Guillaume who worked in an auto mechanic shop, and knew everybody in the art scene - he had quite the collection of Renoirs, Cezannes, Picassos, etc., that were given to the state for this museum. 

Next we went to have a cup of tea (a sorely needed dose of caffeine for those of us who hadn’t slept much), and met another friend, Anne Marie, with her 4 year old daughter, Louisa, who she had adopted two years ago.  Anne Marie seemed marvelous, and comfortable in her new role as mom.  Louisa is very energetic … making us realize how glad we are not to have a 4 year old any more!

We were joined for dinner by Guy’s family, Pascal, Joachim and Clara (Raphael was away) at Chez Francis, a lovely French Brasserie next to the Seine River.  We sat outside on the terrace, looking at the Eiffel Tour.  It stayed light very late – before I realized it, it was 10:00pm.  The food was delicious and the company even better.  It’s so nice to reconnect with old friends, and worth spending an extra day of journeying. 

So, we were in Paris itself for roughly 9 hours, and managed to see 6 old friends, meet 2 new ones (Fabien, Louisa), have 3 meals (if you count the tea), visit a museum, take 2 metro rides and 3 cab rides.  This trip had better slow down if it’s going to be a vacation!

Now I’m wide awake at 4am trying to get a little sleepy for a touch more shut-eye before getting ready for our flight to Russia.

-- Donna