Everyone got decent sleep and was up and ready to go early. Ash, Mark, Sherry and I went out about 7am to walk Zeus and go to Ash’s favorite bakery.

We took Henri IV across the Seine then picked up Saint Germain and stayed there. I think now we have walked the entirety of Saint Germain on this trip since we had picked it up where it ends (or starts) yesterday.

d’Isabella won First Prize for its croissants in 2018 – a big deal considering there must be hundreds of bakeries in this city. (1360 in 2025 according to Perplexity.)

On Tuesdays and Saturdays they have a farmers market so we were in luck there. All of us bought something.

We were back in the apartment by 8:30 or so, and made breakfast out of some of our purchases.

We left about 10 AM and walked along the river for a little bit, popping up long enough for everyone to see Notre Dame during the day.

We made it to our destination, the d’Orsay, a little after 11am for an 11:30 entry. And good thing we were early. The line for that time was already forming and got really long behind us. We didn’t think that 11am line was ever going to stop, but they finally opened up our line around 11:45.

We made a beeline to the 5th floor for a stop at their cafe.

Mark took the above photo of me trying to take the photo below. But I used his shot of Sacre Coure because he has the better zoom.

They were able to seat us right away at a great table in the corner by the window. We had a light lunch of soups and salads.

d’Orsay is known for having the or at least one of the best Impressionist collections in the world. The 5th floor is nothing but Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, Pissaro, Sisley, and others – many quite recognizable. This is their home.

This is my 3rd time to the d’Orsay and probably Ash’s 6th or something like that. For everyone else it was their first and we enjoyed their reactions to seeing such amazing works up close as opposed to, as Sherry so eloquently put it, on a party napkin.

So I didn’t take a bunch of photos as I didn’t feel like making this a museum post. If you’re friends with Mark on Facebook you can see lots of that there 😬❤️

But I did capture a couple of select things. Monet is still my favorite, and I don’t remember seeing this before.

This is another I didn’t remember seeing. It’s a Renoir. And who is sitting for it? Claude Monet. They were living in Montmartre at the same time along with Van Gogh, Pissaro, Degas, Manet, Sisley, Cezanne, and even Picasso was there at the end.

Once we had our fill of the 5th floor we worked our way quickly through 4 and 3, to the sculptures on 2 which are worth spending some time with. We got through one side of it, and suddenly everyone was sort of exhausted at the same time. It was a little after 1pm and we made our way home. Most of us napped.

Ash, Mark, and Jon had planned to go to a meeting. Sherry and I were happy to have a night to ourselves. Sherry had suggested earlier that we return to Montmartre and, given our experience at the museum earlier, that seemed beyond fitting. I had spent 4 nights there in 2018 so mapped us to that point using the subway just to get us in the neighborhood.

We had walked by these stairs from the bottom and, well, let’s just say Sherry was surprised at how high they went. But that’s how it is here. So I walked her around the long way, seeing the outer edge and more commercial parts of the neighborhood, which sneakily got us to the top of the stairs over a gradual but continuous upward climb.

Then we turned towards the center of the neighborhood which gets more quaint and interesting with every step.

We came across this adorable chocolate store and couldn’t resist. The woman standing in the doorway facing us was so nice and helpful. Gave us free treats in addition to 3 samples in the store. We enjoyed all of it and made our way to find a place for dinner.

I’ve been looking for duck confit since I got here and this was the first time we saw it on a menu so we decided this was it. Cafe Bruant.

Sherry is not a snail girl but this was another item on my list. They were cooked perfectly and simply in a garlic butter.

Sherry got the chicken burger without the bread. The duck confit came with potatoes that were crazy good, likely cooked in duck fat.

We finished with cappuccinos and a chocolate mousse that was so rich we couldn’t finish it.

After dinner we made our way back to the apartment at exactly the same time as the guys.

This was across the street from where we got on the subway.

Everyone pretty much went straight to bed as it was approaching 10pm and we need to be out of here by 8am for our trip to Versailles tomorrow.

This is for Ash: