Musée Maillol and MOMA at the Palais de Tokyo

Actually got some sleep last night and we both felt better. After breakfast, we walked a few blocks to the Musée Maillol, paid and entered. The special exhibit is “The Treasures of Naples” (Le Tresor de Naples, les joyaux de San Gennaro) and it was stunning. Of course photos were not allowed. Most of the permanent collection was not on display because of renovations in the museum. It should reopen in September but we’ll be in Provence then. Link to my blog Provence in September

The museum restaurant themes its meals to the current temporary exhibit so we had a lovely Neapolitan lunch at La Cortigiana, ending with a baba au limoncello that came with a shot glass of limoncello. Wow! Ed had the lasagna Bolognese and I had a ravioli aubergine with a wonderful buffalo mozzarella. Great fun. [The Maillol Museum, 59-61 Rue de Grenelle, Paris 75005; tel: +33 (0)1 4222-5958; Maillol Museum web site]

Update: The last time I checked their web site, the Italian restaurant had been replaced with Café des Frères Prévert that was offering dishes named after the French artists in the current exhibit.

Then we made a tactical error. We decided to visit the Museum of Modern Art at the Palais de Tokyo. It was a lot farther than we thought but we saw a lot of Paris on the way, including some very happy families using the new Berges of the Seine. A ring scammer accosted us (unsuccessfully) and then we couldn’t find the museum entrance. We climbed the dramatic white staircase of the Palais to discover huge chunks of missing stairs (skateboard damage), ugly graffiti on the lovely white statues and a veritable gang of scruffy, shirtless 20 to 30-something young men on skateboards we had to dodge. We got past them and found a homeless encampment with tents on the terrace with more graffiti and vandalism to the once-lovely Palais de Tokyo. This brought us to the back of the Palais on Place de Tokyo and we went in the first entrance we saw. Wrong entrance. There were two entrances and we’d picked the wrong one so we got a couple Perriers and rested our feet, then went to the other entrance. We had walked into the Palais de Tokyo, Contemporary Art and Exhibition Space (which charges) and wanted the Paris Museum of Modern Art (free). Paris Museum of Modern web site

It’s another free Paris museum and we didn’t need tickets so wandered the massive collection of the Museum of Modern Art. They have some Picasso, Braque, Matisse, Vuillard that I enjoy and a lot of Derain, Dufy, Roualt and Soutine that I don’t particularly like. We waded through most of it in relative peace and then, exhausted, headed for the Pont d’Alma RER station vowing to ride home.

Getting to the RER station involved climbing down a very long staircase from ave. du President Wilson to rue de la Manutention where we found lovely community gardens growing by the Palais. What a neat idea.

We crossed on the Pont Passerelle Debilly to the left bank and set out for the Pont de l'Alma RER station. When we arrived, we were accosted by nearly a dozen petition scammers. I was so shocked I yelled at one in English immediately identifying myself as a tourist. Dumb. They just kept coming at us as we waved them off. We wanted to check the RER map on the wall to get our direction. As Ed looked at the map, a young woman reached for his pocket. I yelled at her and she left, but so did we. We crossed the street and started down Quai d’Orsay leaving the touts behind. One young man was stupidly reading a “petition” and I told him to watch his wallet. I hope he did.

I’ve never seen so much of this in Paris. I guess we usually come off season. All in all, it seemed easier to just walk home.

Walking home proved interesting as walks usually do in Paris. On the way we met a small demonstration (3 people) against North Korean Communism on the Champs Elysées on July 14. We have no idea what is planned for Bastille Day in July, but at least three people object to some part of it. Farther on we were stopped by a very lost Chinese family. They were looking for Bir-Hakim Metro station and had turned the wrong way. I showed them where we were on my map and they decided Invalides Metro would be okay so we directed them and then followed to make sure they didn’t get lost again.

Eventually we got home after stopping for a half baguette at Eric Kayser and Sunday supplies at Proxi. We are in for the night and hope it’s not too noisy here. Quite a few groups are vowing to boycott the Fête de la Musique in protest over the Paris Police enforcement of the quiet laws so it may be quieter than usual. My sore throat has returned with a vengeance. Can’t throw this cold . . . but I'd rather have a cold in Paris than anywhere else in the world.