i must admit, kp&i don't typically celebrate the 4th, especially since we've been in paris. last year i think we literally did nothing - i probably went to the library - but this year the 4th happened to fall on the first sunday of the month, which is free public museum day in paris... so we rallied.
we decided to go out to the musée marmottan monet in the 16th, where they've put on a great exhibit about monet and 20th-century abstract painting (richter, rothko, pollock, etc. - good stuff). unfortunately, the marmottan monet is a private museum, which means we had to shell out 14 bucks to get in. but it was worth it to see all those water lilies... and certainly for the 20 minutes we spent decorating our dream house around this beauty:
gerhard richter (1932-)
then we took a walk around the bois de boulogne, the wooded area that marks the western border of paris. it's 2.5 times bigger than central park and is apparently THE hotspot for transvestite prostitutes, but you wouldn't know that during the day... we made our way around the lac supérieur, admiring the giant, skinny trees (beech? some kind of cedar?)
then we walked over to the palais de tokyo (missing the museum hours by about 3 minutes. doh!), had a beer on the terrace, and grabbed one more shot of the eiffel tower. you really can't have too many, can you?
naturally, we worked up a pretty good appetite with all that walking, so over to saint anne we went for some noodles at our favorite japanese restaurant in town, higuma. kp always gets a little fussy at this place - the service is slooooow.
kp's grumpy face
i was ready for bed at this point, but kp had other plans for us. after a good bit of needling, he talked me into stopping into harry's new york bar for ONE cocktail. "it's the 4th of july! we have to go to the american bar!" according to wikipedia, harry's is one of the most famous bars in the world - coco chanel used to drop in on occasion - but i'd never heard of it.
the ONE cocktail (that, for kp, then became 5...)
i went with a g&t - the classic summer bevvy - and kp had an old fashioned. the bar was quiet, the night fresh, the barman snooty but totally on top of his game... everything was fine... and then, we kicked over a nest.
note: "kicked over a nest" in the family vernacular refers to a rare social phenomenon whereby two unsuspecting, merry travelers happen upon an unknown location (usually a roadside diner or a local bar) and encounter a heretofore unseen species.
the nest: the "writer," the retired judge from tempe, the gay jeweler, lb
these pennants were everywhere... kp entertained himself by taking pictures of them once he'd grown weary of our new friends (ps, go green wave)
kp, post-harry's self portrait
happy birthday USA. i think you're going to feel that one in the morning.
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