Night at the museums

I love the Eurostar - it's so easy and quick. I'd bought the ticket that had lunch included. Cheese, bread, wine, tea, and a delicious white chocolate dessert later, we were in Paris. Our airbnb lay a 30-minute walk southeast of the station, via lots of intriguing windows and bakery smells and some ladies of the afternoon (4pm!) and plenty of homeless folk sleeping rough, lying over the entire width of the narrow pavements.

Our host had left the key in an envelope at a bar. I attempted to ask in French for the envelope and it worked - the chap disappeared for a while and returned with an envelope. Marvellous. Now can I have the one with my name on it and the key inside? Still, it's nice to know that one can ask for an envelope in a bar - it saves finding a stationery shop. Fred asked in much better French and there was lots of laughter as the key-filled envelope was produced. We stayed a little longer for beer and toasted cheese in the company of the bar's ginger cat.

Our dwelling for the long weekend is up six flights of narrow, wooden, slightly sloped stairs. None of the doors have numbers and there are a lot of doors. Luckily, I had good door-hunting instructions from our host and the key worked. The place is a studio, with everything in its place. Very compact and charming. A place I'd aspire to live in if I was able to own only one of only the essential things. There are a lot of books here, though.

Tonight, the museums opened for free. We visited the Musee de la Chasse et de la Nature (old and new animal images, statues, stuffed animals, guns, films - fascinating) and Victor Hugo's apartment (the apartment was closed but his exhibition of drawings was on view - they're fantastic!) We marvelled at the queue for the Picasso Museum - huge. We didn't even try.