Last week of Susan’s second month. A Parisian week, so Parisian that we bought a weekly metro pass and Susan graduated, Cum Laude, from “Find your way in the Paris Metro maze”.

The week had begun with a visit to the Louvre.
Susan tried to show the famous Mona Lisa enigmatic smile. SUCCESS!Unfortunately we were not able to reserve the Louvre for a private visit. Susan had to share.
Next time, who knows.

I know, this number 73 rue de Vaugirard does not ring a bell for you.
At this very address I spent the first 40 years of my life. This area was my village.
A pilgrimage was needed. DONE!As we were in the Montparnasse area, we paid a tribute to the great men (and women too) burried in the Montparnasse Cemetery. For stupid reasons we missed the 100th Anniversary of Citroën, the car manufacturer, not stopping by the founder’s grave would have been an insult to his memory.Some graves of unknown wealthies are overly Baroque. This one does not lack an ounce of bad taste.Most Cemeteries have a Jewish quarter, Montparnasse has at least four.Here a famous film maker, Gérard Oury and his wife Michèle Morgan. She had a superb career and she leaves an immortal trace in the French cinema. In the movie « Quai des Brumes » Jean Gabin seduces her with a « You’ve got so beautiful eyes, you know ».

Did I fool you? Moving even in French.Talking about love, sorry LOVE, this deserves an Upper Case, the most famous couple of French intellectuals, Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre.
Simone de Beauvoir, a Path finder in the Women’s Lib said, « You are not born Woman, you become one ».
As for a tribute to the great woman, Susan too left her mark too.We went to l’Orangerie where Monet’s Water Lillies are on a permanent display. In the lower part of the building another exhibit was waiting for us.This modern abstract painting by Alex Katz, inspired by Monet’s Water Lillies, needed a close inspection.Soutine was also part of the exhibit that included, but not only, Matisse, Renoir…
Two hours well spent.We left the Orangerie for, as Bankrupt Pinocchio would say, the most touristy picture in the Galaxy: from le jardin des Tuileries the alignment of la Concorde, les Champs Elysées and l’Arc de Triomphe.Saturday was dedicated to my perversion, Arts and Technologies. This Museum hosts a collection of technological objects such as clocks, measuring standards, communication equipments, mechanical devices, looms (I just discovered this word) and technological cathedrals that will never be number crunching again.Here a Cray 2. In my presence, should you wish to avoid a three hour lecture on the beauty of super-computing, do not even mention the name.