We spent the morning at the Rodin Museum. There are a large number of works. Many of them are plaster casts, but there are plenty of completed bronze works also. The statues of Balzac were interesting. There’s a nude Balzac in brass at the Baltimore Museum of Art. There is a plaster cast of this piece in the Rodin Museum house. And there is the “finished” brass statue of Balzac clothed in the Rodin Museum garden. One can see how Rodin progressed in his work. Personally, I think the earlier nude is a stronger work.

Of course one should see the Paris Opera House. Instead of taking a tour, we attended a performance Saturday afternoon. The audience was in a festive mood. Many people were taking pictures before the show, both tourists and French. We saw one group lean over their balcony box to take pictures of people they knew in the adjacent box. A man who sat in front of us wanted pictures of his teenage daughter, who was reacting in a typical teenage way. The house was packed. There wasn’t a single empty seat anywhere. I’m not sure how to describe the performance. It was a very contemporary dance. It was the first time I was mooned by a dance troop. (It was a very polite mooning.) Anyway, we had a good time.

While traveling around Paris, I was able to get a pretty good shot of the Eiffel Tower.