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Friday, Aug. 12: Musée d'Orsay, Paris Plage

The hostel doesn't allow stays of longer than 6 nights, so today I took the metro to Marie de Clichy and walked to another hostel, checked in, and left some of my stuff in a locker there.

Then I rode back downtown, walked around the left bank for a while, had a Croque au Chevre and a beer at a café, and then went to the Musée d'Orsay.

Compared to the Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay is actually somewhat manageable, though I was a bit tired by the time I reached the impressionists on the top floor--the part most people actually come to see. It's an interesting building. And I particularly liked some or the art nouveau stuff on the second floor. (At least I think it was the second floor--the configuration and numbering of floors was very confusing.)

After that I walked around some more and picked up some groceries on the way, aiming for a picnic on the Paris Plage by nightfall.

There were some jugglers at the east end of Paris Plage when I arrived, so I actually got to pass clubs a little bit before I sat down with my dinner of bread, cheese, tomatoes, and a peach. Yum.

Writing this now, I can't remember whether it was this Friday or the previous Friday that I ran across a large mass of cyclists slowly parading down the street. I assume this was Paris's local version of Critical Mass.