serendipity noun. the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.

After scheduling the museum marathon, we were left with two open days. Time to do nothing or something as whims or opportunities presented themselves. Coincidentally, both days were influenced by travel friends Kay and Jerry.

Travel Buddies

On our first Robson/Robson/Tipps/Poplin trip which was to Australia and New Zealand, we met Kay and Jerry. The tour leader Nessa wanted everybody to rotate for an equal opportunity of sitting in the “front” of the bus. The front of the bus folks were eager beavers who really loved being in the front and first off with cameras adangling. They did not want to switch around.

Partly by happenstance and partly due to attitude, we six were more relaxed and found each other in the back of the bus. We were content being there and equally resistant to switching places. We had more room to spread out. We had our own exit. We shared more conversation.

You get to know a lot about people in ten days in the back of a bus. Kay and Jerry were so much fun, we have kept in touch. They are avid travelers and inspired us to see the world.

We visited them at their home in Fairhope, Alabama, on one of our square dance excursions. After they moved to Tampa to be closer to family, (especially granddaughter), Becky and I had an opportunity to visit them. We were in Florida seeing Stephen and Liz in Sarasota and Gerald and Kathleen in Venice Beach. It was a trifecta of Florida friends.

They have been reading the travel blog for years; we appreciate their comments and suggestions. When they read that we were going to Paris, they recommended three favorite places to eat. We got to two of them.

Sunday, Sweet Sunday

“Sunday, sweet Sunday with nothing to do” are words from Flower Drum Song, a lovely but dated Rogers and Hammerstein musical. Today they were the perfect description for a serendipity day. One of Kay’s recommendations was her favorite patisserie. Maison Mulot was a half hour bus ride away in St. Germain—a rather long ride for a sweet treat.

We were searching for a Sunday afternoon concert and found a Chopin piano recital in ancient church. Eglise St. Julien lePovre was also in St. Germain. The concert and pastries were only a few blocks from each other with an opportunity to see more of Paris.

Serendipity!

After a lazy morning, Maistro of Movement Jim guided us to St. Germain where we had lunch at Zorba, a fantastic Greek restaurant discovered on a side street.

Everybody working there is Greek including our waitress who is studying International Relations and speaks 3 or 4 languages. Greek salads and pastitsio were the dishes of the day.

Wandering through winding side streets brought us to a really old and beautiful church in the Romanesque style.

The church built in the 12th is now Orthodox and filled with beautiful icons. It was is located in a park next to the oldest tree in Paris dating back to the year 1601.

The concert was a great afternoon interlude. The pianist was a tiny young woman with tremendous power in her hands. The Robsons and I were able to watch her hands; she seemed to caress the keys effortlessly creating a wonderful hour in a beautiful setting.

A quick walk took us to Maison Mulot. Becky and I drank coffee and shared a St. Honore pastry drizzled in caramel and surrounded by whipped cream. It was as delicious as it looked.

The Robsons ordered a chocolate pie/cake, and the chef recommended heating it so that the chocolate was good and gooey. We caught the bus back in a sugar stupor, tired but elated with our day without a plan but full of serendipity.

Last Day in Paris

Our second serendipity day was our last day in Paris. We had already wasbed clothes and finished most of the packing with no agenda except reservations at Kay’s recommended Bon Restaurant.

A Long Walk

The Robson Report. We took the open morning as an invitation for a long walk, long as in 6.5 miles, beginning in the Bois de Bologne. Unbeknownst to me, Jim had always wanted to walk through this park on his previous visits to Paris. I was delighted to hear this as we made our short walk from our apartment to the vast park which covers 2088 acres.

It has quite a storied history.

Francis I built a chateau in the middle of the forest. During the Hundred Years War, the English hid here to attack Paris. The Spanish & English also used the forest to attack Napoleon. In 1852 Emperor Napoleon III turned this forested area into a public park marking the start of developing green spaces in Paris.

Bois de Boulogne is called the “lungs of Paris” because the greenery helps to cleanse the city’s air.

For many years it was the playground of the Paris elite. Now it is a marvelous network of trails and roads used by bikers, horses and pedestrians.

We decided to find the spring and waterfall shown on the map of the park. Our route took us above the falls so Jim took a perilous stone path down under the waterfall to snap a picture.

After he had made the dangerous descent, I found an easier set of nearby steps. I sat down looking over a beautiful little lake and waited for him to return.

We sat on the steps in complete solitude

and ate our lunch.

After three busy weeks in the city, we enjoyed a couple of hours of calm. A lengthy walk took us to the Arch de Triumph for one last look. Then we caught the metro home. Near the station we relaxed over a coffee at a bistro—a happy ending to a fine day.

Discovery and Recovery

Becky was feeling a great lassitude after three long museum days and the three-story climb from the Seine to Passy. I was frustrated by the museum crowds we encountered at d’Orsay and Louvre and longed for a quiet museum.

The Museum of Modern Art on the Bus 32 route seemed like a possibility. When David Hockney was a student in Paris, he often visited there which I took as a good recommendation. I believed a quick trip might be just the trick to relieve museum doldrums. I planned to spend two hours, but wound up staying three because it was so wonderful.

Matisse. The Musee is the repository of a major collection of Matisse including famous room-sized mural, “The Dancers.”

Apparently, Matisse and his daughter Marguerite have a long history with the museum. The current exhibit of “Matisse and Marguerite” includes 50 paintings of her from childhood to middle age. Marguerite was his model and muse for 60 years.

These paintings also reflect how Matisse changed his painting approach toward more abstraction. Eventually she became his agent and conservator.

Gunter. The other special exhibit featured Gabrielle Gunter, German photographer, printer, painter, and pioneer in abstract expressionism. Early in her career, she traveled to the United States. I was stunned with a series of photos taken in Plainview, Texas, not far from my hometown of Electra.

These stark black and white prints from 1900 show desolate settings and silent people living on the barren plains of Texas and hint of the dust bowl to come.

They look like photos from that era of my grandfather, grandmother, and Electra. My grandmother, Mary Shaeffer, fresh out of college with a teaching degree was schoolmarm in one- and two- room schools near Electra. She met Lester Crawford who, according to family story, was a mandolin player, thespian, and jolly fellow. They married and begat my mother Elaine, Uncle Josh, and my much loved Aunt Charlene.

Grandfather Lester worked in the oil fields around Electra that were discovered around 1910. His job was tending pumper jacks and operating a pump station next door to our house in Electra.

A tornado blew the pump station away when I was ten years old. We looked out the back window of our house and saw it coming like a scene from “The Wizard of Oz.” Hard times came for those pioneers through the drought, dust bowl, depression, and Texas twisters. Gabrielle Gunter’s photos evoked thoughts of my roots. Sobering serendipity.

Early in her career, Gunter painted in an abstract expressionism style and exhibited with Kandinsky, her lover for many years, and Klee.

Works from this era showed experimentation with color and form. Over time, her work was becoming more representational to my eye but retaining wild coloration. I enjoyed learning about an important artist who I never knew and was encouraged to rethink my unschooled painting efforts.

The museum also holds an extensive collection of post impressionist and contemporary paintings and sculpture presented in large galleries with few people. Many by famous artists who are in Musee d’Orsay are also here, but many more are artists of great talent but not as well known such as Robert and Sophia Delaney.

The Paris Musee of Modern Art was a jewel of a museum: great art with the space and time to fully enjoy and experience.

Bon Evening and Bon Farewell

Bon Restaurant is a Philippe Starck-designed restaurant recommended by Kay and only a ten minute walk from Passy 28. The setting is very elegant with glass and gilt fixtures everywhere including the loo— a bit Gatsbyesque retro with a sumptuous smoking lounge in the rear.

We were first to arrive at 7:00, but several groups soon arrived including a party of 10 who were pretty loud and happy.

Before we made the reservation, we checked out the menu which was very reasonably priced. Jim and I ordered the special of the evening, mussels in green curry sauce, which was deliciously messy.

Jim earned another title, Master of Moule, extracting mussels with only a small amount of green sauce on himself. However I was fairly well covered with green sauce on my hands, face, and dribbled down my pants leg requiring a flotilla of napkins.

Betsy ordered Pave de Sauron in pesto with vegetables which she declared a winner. Becky enjoyed Burger Curry Coco, an amazing chickpea burger served with frite. We were all feeling BON when we left.

We ambled back to the apartment stopping for a night view of the Eiffel Tower perfectly framed between buildings. Jim had discovered this great photo op from a street in our neighborhood. When its lights are turned on at dusk, the Tower is an awesome sight.

Jim ventured out in the chill later to capture the hourly light show which makes the Eiffel Tower sparkle.

The Eiffel Tower was an exclamation point for our last day and night of Serendipity in Paris.