Saturday, May 4th was rainy and cold. Scott went out to a great patisserie and came bace with croissants for our breakfast. Delicious! We decided to visit the Louvre and as it turned out so did half of Paris. We were getting ready to leave when Scott discovered he had lost his metro pass. Fortunately, we could get a new one, at a cost, in the Metro. He got a new 3 day pass and then I tried to use mine but it did not work. UGH!!! Fortunately there was someone in the ticket booth and he gave me another one. Off we went. It was rainy and cold. Not the best day to be out.
Line to get into the Louvre
We have been to the Louvre many times but our whole reason for going to the Louvre again was to visit the the gallery of “Paintings recuperated after WWII”. I had seen this article in the New York Times from March 13, 2018 about “Nazi Plundered Art at the Louvre”. It is the first time since 1945 that a portion of the museum’ 1,752 Nazi-plundered objects are being shown in a dedicated space. During the war over 100,000 works were taken by the Germans. A portion of these paintings have recently been installed in their own permanent space in the Louvre. It is a hodgepodge display of 31 painting squeezed into two galleries with a small label reading “Paintings recuperated after WWII”. The only thing they have in common is that they were all looted by the Nazis during WWII and returned to France. None have found their rightful owners. Besides the works in this room there are several other works throughout the museum marked as MNR (Musee National Recuperation). The gallery is a tribute to Rose-Valland the courageous curator who kept a ledger of Nazi thefts. You might recall there was a person in “The Monuments Men” that is based on Rose-Valland.
When we got to the Louvre I asked where these rooms were. The woman looked it up and said they were in gallery 803 (2nd floor) of the Richelieu wing. From the map it looked pretty straight-forward but as the article said these galleries are hard to find and the article goes on to say, “We’re hoping that the Louvre intends these galleries to be less hidden, and more than a politically symbolic effort.” We kept walking and inquiring and we finally found gallery 803. It is not really marked and we indeed did stumble upon it. Below is a sign describing what is in the room.
They had a special exhibit call the Louvre Then and Now. It had some of their older works but it also had some expressionist paintings. I really liked this one by Renoir.
Since we had seen what we had planned on seeing we decided to head out and go to the Musee d’Orsay. We walked down to the Metro station which is in the Louvre. The line to get in was enormous! We were glad to have gone earlier. So, Scott put in his ticket. It worked. I put mine in and it was a no go. Keep in mind I had just gotten a new ticket! I kept trying. Then Scott came back and gave me his to try and now his did not work! What else could happen??? Well we knew there was another Metro stop near by so we decided to walk there and try. By now it was really raining and it was cold. It is a little complicated to get to the d’Orsay so we decided to just head back to the tourist office and try to get my ticket situation straightened our. So, we went down to get the train (I was going to just get a new ticket). Scott’s ticket now worked and there was a woman in the ticket booth. She gave me yet another ticket (3 day pass) so off we went.
We were hungry so we headed back to the Marais. It was still raining. We did not have a clear plan for a place to eat and tried looking for a spot that we had eaten at with Beth and her family. Of course we did not know the name! So we found this place to eat. A Turkish restaurant call of all things Chez Marianne! I got the four selection plate which was good and since Scott decided he did not like anything on the menu, he got a beer and cheesecake!! We had done a Turkish meal for our gourmet club and Scott informed me that he did not like Turkish food at all!!!
Kofte, tuna, cucumber and egg plant 
Beer and cheesecake
After lunch it was still raining and we were cold so we headed back to our apartment. We had a 7:30 reservation at a restaurant two people had recommended, Chez Mademoiselle. It was close by so very walkable.
Chez Mademoiselle is a small restaurant, very cozy. There were several English speaking people in the restaurant. It had an open spot with a contraption that turned our to be a dumb waiter. The owner seated us and answered our menu questions. We had a great meal.
Seared tuna with chopped red onion, herbs and citrus over a potato puree 
Lamb chops, haricot verts and a salad 
Beignets with a carmel sauce 
I love lemon so I got this very tart and flavorful lemon tarte 
Doesn’t Scott look happy to have some limoncello after dinner ?? Not!
We had some unexpected entertainment during our meal. I was sitting facing the bar. A man had been seated there when we came in and another younger man joined him. Well the owner was flirting quite unabashedly with the young man. She was pouring him wine, giving him food and going out to smoke with him. It was pretty funny. However, since she was occupied that left the restaurant in the capable hands of the two staff. They did a great job!
On our walk back to the apartment we found this old piece of the wall that had been built around Paris. This is one of only a few fragments left. Actually, the Louvre castle was part of this wall. The translation of the sign is below.
Historic of Paris – Phillipe Augustus. Anxious not to let Paris be protected at the moment of his departure for the Crusade Phillipe Augustus began in 1190 the construction of an enclosure on the right bank followed from 1200 by his construction on the left bank. Drawing the shape of a heart, this wall encompasses 253 hectacres, including many uninhabited spaces, fields, meadows or vineyards. Every 70 meters a tower reinforces this rampart 9 meters high and 3 feet thick at the base. Doors and posterns allow access to the city.
Meandering With Murphy 