Week in Paris

Just said my goodbyes to my relatives (mom, sis, aunt, cousin) who spent a fair chunk of time here in Paris. The first weekend, we went up to Bruges. Getting back Monday, we commenced with the whirlwind tour. For example, on Friday, we split up and half did the Centre Pompidou (the new Los Angeles Exhbit is so cool), while the other half went to check out the Bonnard exhibit (which I talked about earlier, and is amazing. It even just got a big writeup in the NY Times). Then we met up after some street food and went to the Petit Palais, where we did the tour and I showed my mom one of my favorite paintings - Portrait de Sarah Bernhardt by Georges Clairin. After that, we took the metro over to St. Germain des Pres to get a coffee at Cafe de Flore. Then we did some shopping and hopped on over to the Louvre because it's open late Wed and Friday. After our whirlwind trip around the Louvre, with me jabbing elbows to get through huge crowds of tourists, we had dinner at my place, where Jacques made Osso Bucco (am I spelling that right?). A few bottles of wine later, we all filed out and I fell into a deep sleep.

Some other highlights:
- My family loved the Orsay the most (big surprise), and really raved about it the most throughout the trip.
- Shopping in the Marais is always a kick for people. I took them to Muji, one of my favorite stores here in Paris, where they have really cool stationery and such. I also really like their clothes, which are utilitarian and urban but not too expensive.
- They also really dug the bag store Brontibay on Rue de Sevigne right off Rue Rivoli.