Atelier des Lumières for the Van Gogh Show

June 3, 2019 — Day 25 (Monday)

Rainy Monday. We took our umbrellas today and that turned out to be a good idea. It spit on and off all day but Metéo promised rain at three o’clock and right on schedule, it poured.

We had tickets to the Van Gogh show at the Atelier des Lumières. You have to reserve ahead and we don’t have a printer so I downloaded the nonrefundable tickets onto my phone and hoped they would accept them. We didn’t know how long it would take to get there and had a long Metro ride so naturally we got there early. People were already queuing but they were for ten o’clock and our tickets were for 10:30 so we found a stone and sat down to wait. It opened at ten and as they let people in, I saw quite a few using cell phone tickets. Quelle relief.

Soon they said 10:00 or 10:30 could enter so we cheerfully went in, through security and used my phone for the tickets with no problem. We went through the door and it was nearly pitch black. After our eyes adjusted a little, we found a seat on the far side of a very large room. The show started in a few minutes and is projected on all the walls and floor. You really sit (or stand) in the show. People were pretty good about staying out of your vision but as it became more crowded, it was harder to see. There were three shows, (1) Van Gogh, the Starry Night; (2) Japan Dreamed, Images of the Floating World; and (3) Verse which was very short. I liked the Van Gogh best because I knew the paintings and the music and it was the main show. It was an interesting experience and I'd love to visit the Atelier de Lumières at Les Baux some time. [Atelier des Lumières, 38 Rue Saint-Maur, 75011; tel: +33 (0)1 8098-4600; Click here for the Atelier des Lumières web site]

After the show, we decided to walk back to rue Republique and as we stood on the sidewalk looking at our map, a friendly Frenchman stopped and asked if he could help. He spoke no English but we made ourselves understood and he gave us directions, wished us “bonne continuation” and we set off. We found the street we wanted and started toward Pl. De la Republique looking for restaurants. We found several McDonald’s, two Burger Kings, a KFC and various pizza places, none of which had any appeal. Found a nice Alsatian restaurant but they were tearing up the street in front with jackhammers and it was too noisy. We kept walking past Pl. De la Republique to blvd. St. Martin where we finally found Le Pachyderme, a fun French restaurant with a good menu and friendly waitress. Definitely worth the hike. We entered and were seated by a window so we could watch the parade of people going by. Ed got grilled sea bass and I got souris d’agneau and both were excellent. My lamb fell off the bone! I got the moelleux au chocolat and Ed glace nougat for dessert. Terrific meal. [Le Pachyderme Restaurant, 2 Boulevard Saint-Martin, 75010; tel: +33 (0)1 4206-3256; Click here for the Le Pachyderme Facebook Page]

The sprinkles let up so we started toward the Pompidou Center down blvd. St. Martin to rue St. Martin stopping to explore the outside of the closed Arts et Metiers Musée on the way. After photographing the huge arch at Porte Saint-Martin, we continued to the Pompidou where we found a table beside the Stravinsky Fountain where we could order drinks. Ed got hot chocolate and I got mint tea, both fine but it started to pour and the umbrellas weren’t great protection. I put up my own umbrella under the restaurant umbrella. When we finished our drinks, we started past the Pompidou to our Metro, passing a very long line waiting to get into the Pompidou. Everyone is looking for indoor things to do today.

At the Metro we were greeted with the announcement that the #11 line was closed at Chatélet, our correspondence, so we had to go to Hotel de Ville, change to #1 to Chatélet and get our #7 home. It worked and two very nice Arab young men gave us their seats on the #7.

Got home and checked my phone to discover I had a call so I returned it and it was La Bonne Excuse Restaurant and we do have our 12:30 reservation June 6th for our 55th wedding anniversary. Hooray!