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April 1998

Amiens

David Aaronson
2005-09-23 22:34:11

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On Tuesday morning, we checked out of the hotel in Paris, and went to the Musee D'Orsay. Supposedly less crowded than the Louvre, but with as nearly as impressive a collection, it was built in an old train station with each room designed for the works of a particular artist. As it turned out, it was probably as crowded as the Louvre and since our Museum Passes had expired, we also had to wait for about 20 minutes to get in. It was however well worth the wait, and it had collections such as Monet's water lilies, Van Gogh's self-portraits, Whistler's Mother, and so on. The only downside came when we stopped halfway through our tour in the cafe for some light lunch. That's where I discovered one of the few things that can go wrong in Paris, that guide books don't tell you about: Yes, while Melanie played it safe and had quiche, I ordered the assorted cheese tray - which I might note didn't actually look that bad when it arrived. Ignoring the hideously mottled chunky blue things, I selected instead what we were unanimously of the opinion was Camembert and popped the entire thing into my mouth. Well, I dare say it wasn't Camembert, because I've had Camembert many times before and it's never caused my eyes to roll back in my head, followed by dizziness, nausea, and hallucinations. Okay, maybe that's a slight exaggeration. Needless to say I was rather turned off on the cheese thing, and managed only to pick a bit at the other (less toxic) cheeses and eat the grapes. Let that be a lesson to you.

After the museum, we returned to the car, and headed northwest out of Paris. We took smaller roads towards Amiens, hoping to see some more of rural France. We did in fact see quite a lot of it. There really were countless quaint little towns that gave off overwhelmingly the impression that they were far older than anything you'd ever see in the United States. Not to say they were dilapidated or shabby, they were just ...

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