Day 4

Paris is certainly famous for its art, but it's also famous for shopping (Luxury good maker LVMH headquartered in Paris for a reason!) This day we went shopping at Gallerie Lafayette, a department store heavily advertised in tourist literature. As a bonus, we get to see the nearby magnificent Opera house.

Back to my museum journey, I visited Musee d'Orsay, another must-see art museum in Paris, most well-known for its collection of Impressionists' works, e.g. Manet's Olympia, Monet's Water Lily Pond, plus Van Gogh's Starry Starry Night. It also has an interesting history: it is converted from an old and unused train station built for the world fair of 1900. Tips for future visitors with limited time (say ~2 hr): visit the 5th floor first, where the Van Goghs, Degas, Renoirs, Gauguins ... are. Then 1st floor next (Manet, Courbet, Moreau and other large scale works) Finally other floors.

This evening I brought my wife and daughter to Pompidou again, to take some pictures of its famous water fountains and its unique architecture (the external escalator and heat conducting pipes.) BTW, Pompidou is just 3 min away from our apartment. In fact, we see the back of Pompidou (the side with the pipes) everyday when we walked on the main street next to the apartment. For some reason admission was free this time (maybe it's Sat evening or near closing hours?) which made my prior paid visit even more pointless :( On the flip side, my wife and daughter got to enjoy modern art for free. So I can't complain too much.

Pompidou 

Then we had dinner at Flunch, a budget self-service cafeteria-like restaurant. This was no fine dining but that roasted chicken and the cream puff dessert were really not bad.