Picasso Museum and a parting dinner

On the first Sunday of the month, museums are free in Paris.  When we were here 3 years ago, we wanted to see the Picasso museum but it was closed..  The stars must be aligned, we're here, the museum is open and it's free!  Michele was going to meet us at 9:30 and she was already in line when we arrived.

The museum is housed in the Hotel Sale built in the 1600's.  They call it a hotel, but it was never a hotel in the sense that we know one.  It was a palatial mansion for an influential family.  During the 1600s it was owned by the Republic of Venice for it's ambassador.  The museum has over 5,000 works of art by Picasso in addition to his personal collection of works by other artists, including Cezanne, Degas, Rousseau, Searat and Matisse.  It's been totally renovated combining the very ornate with the very modern and absolutely beautiful from top to bottom.  To our surprise, we were allowed to take pictures inside.  The major focus of this exhibit was sculpture with other media as well.
There were large sculptures.

 

There were small sculptures.

All were fantastic!
There were ceramics.

There were pieces that even novices recognize as pure Picasso.

PORTRAIT de MARIE-THERESE 1937

La LISEUSE (Woman Reading a Book) 1953

MUSICIEN 1972

We really enjoyed this fabulous exhibit.
Time for something to eat.  There was a guy with a food stand making crepes.  Perfect for a light lunch.  Tom treated himself to a hot dog.

Back to the apartment to do laundry and take a nap and get ready for dinner with friends.

We had made a reservation at Au Bourguignon Du Marais, 52, rue Francois Miron.

We have eaten there several times and the food is always delicious and the staff courteous and attentive to our needs without being intrusive.  Our friends, Pat and Barbara, their daughter, Megan, her boyfriend, Pierre and Michele were all meeting there for dinner.

 On our way to the restaurant we passed an interesting set of buildings.  Rue Francois Miron is one of the oldest streets in Paris. Maison du Faucheur at number 11 and Maison du Mouton at number 13 were built in the 14th century.  They are only two of a handful of midieval houses left n Paris.

The staff arranged a nice table for 7, not always easy to do.

We all opted for the beouf Bourguignon of course, specialty of the house and so delicious.

After our hardy meal, we saved room for a scrumptious dessert.  Profiteroles was the choice of the table.

It was a wonderful evening and sadly, we have to say good bye to Pat and Barbara as they head back to Dallas.