The team is at full strength

The initial impetus for our trip to France was a week aboard a chartered barge, cruising the Canal de Burgogne, with 8 friends from Brockville.  Up to this point, for us it has all been a build up to the "main event".  So, over the past two days, our barge mates have been amassing at our "team hotel" in Paris.  As of dinner last night, everyone was "present and accounted for" and ready to go.  We have all been exploring Paris on our own, each couple having spots to revisit or to try for the first time.  Brenda and I visited the relatively new Picasso Museum late yesterday afternoon only to learn at dinner that 4 of the others had been there independently earlier in the day.  So much for herding cats!

Today, more art for us at the Orangerie, an amazing collection amassed "back in the day" by significant Parisienne art dealer and collector, Paul Guillaume, his wife Domenica, and Domenica's second husband after Guillaume's death, Jean Walter.  This is a remarkable collections of Picassos, Cezanes, and all the major artists of the time coupled with a purpose built portion of the building which houses the world's major collection of Les Nympheas (the Waterlilies), by Claude Monet.  We actually were so enthralled with the art that we nearly missed our lunch rez at Phillippe Excoffier (not to be confused with the long dead Escoffier).  Excoffier was the long time executive chef at the American embassy in Paris prior to striking out on his own and runs a small, intimate restaurant on a tiny back street, where unlike many of the "known" chefs, he is actually in the kitchen preparing your meal!

The team will be grouping again this evening at Willie's bar (no relation) and after a final planning session over dinner, it will be off to the barge tomorrow.  Let the games begin......................

The pics are:

1- Hail, hail, the gang's all here!

2- One of our number modelling the crew berets in a "sneak peek" before boarding the barge

3- Sacre Coeur dominates the skyline, looking north from our hotel balcony

4- The aforementioned balcony.......we decided to cancel our planned balcony cocktail party.  Any guesses why?

5- 2 enormous elliptical rooms house Monet's Waterlily canvasses, wrapping the entirety of each room

6- Les "Sappeurs et Pompiers" (firemen) stationed near our hotel have developed the ultimate approach to window washing