I finished my 60th birthday present of spending 60 days in Paris: one day each for 60 years lived. I’ve tabulated below my activities, whereabouts, and visits for those 60 days.
Tuileries Garden: many walk-throughs
Notre-Dame Cathedral: many walk-bys and visits; walking up the stairs for view from the top: 1 time
Louvre: 4 visits
Musee d’Orsay: 3 visits
Pompidou Center’s museum of modern art: 3 visits
Basilica of Sacre Couer Church in Montmartre: 3 visits
Georges Restaurant on top of Pompidou Center: 2 lunches
Studio of Constantin Brancusi (his “Head of a Woman” is shown below): 3 visits
Shakespeare & Company English-language bookstore:Â 4 visits
Studios and gardens of sculptor Auguste Rodin Museum: 2 visits
Montmartre: 3 visits
Jardin des sculpteurs de plein aire: 2 stroll-throughs
Pere Lachaise cemetery (pictured below):Â 3 visits. Chopin’s grave always has the most flowers.
Eiffel Tower: 2 visits. The summit: 1 time; the second level: 2 times
Cafe les Deux Magots: 2 lunches
Cafe de Flore: 2 lunches
Carnavalet Museum (history of Paris): 2 visits (and I still didn’t see everything)
Sainte-Chapelle Cathedral (whose windows are pictured below):Â 2 visits
Luxembourg Gardens: 2 strolls
Espace (museum) Salvador Dali in Montmartre: 1 visit
Picasso Museum: 1 visit
Suburb of Meudon to see where my dad lived 1928-29: 1 visit
Jacquemart-Andre Museum: 1 visit
Claude Monet’s studios and gardens in Giverny: 1 visit
Auvers-sur-Oise, where Van Gogh spent his final months and shot himself: 1 visit
Church of the Madeleine: 1 visit
Victor Hugo Home and Museum: 1 visit
Vaux le Comte chateau and gardens (pictured below): 1 visit
Napoleon’s Tomb: 1 visit
Montmartre Museum (with Charles Leandre exhibit): 1 visit
Musee Guimet (with art taken from Cambodia, VietNam, and elsewhere): 1 visit
Montparnasse Cemetery: 1 visit. French singer Serge Gainsbourg’s grave had the most interesting collection of love offerings.
Hotel de Crillon: 1 visit for high tea. I think my cousin and I saw a famous American director, but we weren’t sure.
Fouquet’s Restaurant on Champs Elysees (pictured below): 1 dinner
Studio and museum of painter Eugene Delacroix (his painting “The Death of Saranopoulos” is below): 1 visit on a rainy day
Alberto Giocometti sculpture exposition: 1 visit
Chaim Soutine painting exposition (one of his paintings is below): 1 visit
Edward Steichen photography exposition at Jeu de Palme museum: 1 visit. Like Monet, Steichen loved flowers and was deeply involved with the scientific propagation and study of delphiniums.
Francisque Poulbot poster and illustration exposition: 1 visit
Studio and museum of sculptor Ossip Zandine (one of his sculptures is below): 1 visit
Versailles palaces and gardens: 1 visit on a glorious sunny Halloween day.
Jardin des Plantes and Mineralogy Museum: 1 visit
Cluny Museum of the Middle Ages (which houses the six huge yet exquisite tapestries of La Dame a la licorne–Lady and the Unicorn, one of which is pictured below): 1 visit
Basilica St. Denis (where many French kings and queens are buried, including Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette): 1 visit
Marmottan Museum (with Monet paintings): 1Â visit
Orangerie museum with Monet waterlily paintings: 1 visit
Museum of Jewish Art and History: 1 visit
Garnier Opera House: 2 visits
Ballets seen at the Garnier Opera House: 3. I saw “Wuthering Heights,” “Songe de le Medee,” and “Genus.”
La Conciergerie (former prison): 1 visit
Memorial of the Jewish Deportation: 1 visit
Yom Kippur services at a temple in Le Marais quarter: 1 service
Top of the Arc de Triomphe: 1 climb
Petit Palais art exhibit: 1 visit
Arab World Institute: 1 visit
Chartres cathedral and town: 1 visit
Reims cathedral: 1 visit
Champagne region: 1 visit
* * * * * * * *
Metro rides: about 8. During the strike, I walked everywhere.
Guidebooks consulted: 6
Visitors: 6
Books read: 4
Blisters on my feet: 3
Scarves bought: 2
Haircuts: 1
Manicures: 1
Clothes, jackets, hats, jewelry, and shoes bought: 0
This won’t be what your count looks like when you visit Paris, but now it’s your turn to create a magnificent memory.
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