The sky might be blue and the blossom dancing but it was pretty nippy around the nethers this morning as we set off to find the number 63 bus stop by the Seine.

Google maps always offers a choice of routes between location and destination and I will always take the bus over the metro. Claustrophobia is a problem for me but I always defend myself by saying you see more from a bus!

I had tickets for the Musee de l’Orangerie which has huge paintings of water lilies painted by Monet specifically for a gallery built to display them.

It was only after a conversation about Paris with a London based friend during which she mentioned seeing some Monets displayed on curved walls that I went off on a Google hunt and found them. How had I missed that? I finally got to Giverny about fifteen years ago and had seen the lily pond there.

So here we were, crossing the Seine on Pont de la Concorde and noticing that you can see the Eiffel tour if you look back. Photos of each of us, of course!

We were early but got in the timed ticket queue anyway. It was cold standing there but at least I wasn’t in a flimsy dress as one young girl. Pretty but brrrr..

It was warmer inside, thank goodness, and the waterlilies were stunning. As usual there were the selfie takers. And chatterboxes. There were signs asking you to look in silence and one young curator spent most of her time shushing people. Himself found the comfy bench in each room while I wandered and marvelled at the scale of the paintings and the mixture of colours used in a simple tree trunk..

Downstairs there was a collection of paintings assembled by an art dealer and collector, Paul Guillaume. Some interesting ones by Andre Derain whom I’m not familiar with and others by Modigliani and Utrillo which I am and love…

After a sit down and some coffee it was back outside onto the huge terrace overlooking Place de la Concorde where it was feeling much warmer. A bit early for our lunch reservation we wandered down into the Tuileries garden and sat in the sun for a while.

Mr McGregor , ever the gardener, was fascinated by the symmetrical and severe pruning of most of the trees around us.

While we were there a starling ran up to us, clearly expecting some crumbs. We had nothing to share but it was a surprise to see one as we rarely get them at home. Feeling peckish we strolled back to the exit gates and crossed rue de Rivoli to find the bistrot I had booked online. It was a bit more upmarket than I had realised, all long aprons on the waiters and waitresses and starched tablecloths. But delicious food and friendly service.

Afterwards a stroll down the rue de Rivoli as far as the Louvre where we decided we needed to catch a bus! Long queues around the courtyard and under the colonnades. Been there, done that…although there’s always more to see!

We were catching a bus as far as Notre Dame as I hoped to buy books at Shakespeare and company but clearly something has changed as there was a queue outside with just a few people at a time being allowed in and only one small wall rack of secondhand books. So no replenishing of English novels today.

There was one more thing I hoped to do before taking my poor exhausted husband home to rest his eyelids.. so I led him into the park René Viviani, sat him on a bench and went off to look inside St Julien la Pauvre.

I had seen it on the map close to Shakespeare and company and discovered that it is a Greek Melkite catholic church and has several icons within it. I remembered how beautiful the icons had been in the Kremlin churches years ago when we were in Moscow and was interested to see these.

And they didn’t disappoint. The church is a remnant of its original size but that makes it an intimate space with the icons glowing from every wall. A perfect and peaceful way to finish the day. For me anyway. Himself was just thinking of his forty winks! 😊