Immersive Experience

I’m blogging from Paris Charles-de-Gaulle Airport. We are about to board our flight in good time, however we have had rather a hair-raising trip to the airport, of which more later. Anyway, we woke up this morning to the rain that had been forecast for today. This did not dishearten us because we had planned accordingly. We had a relaxing and leisurely breakfast at the delightful Café de Flore and then James indulged me by not objecting to a visit to the stationery and book shop next door. The rain obligingly stopped long enough for us to go for a pleasant walk by the river and then we made our way by metro to the 11ième arrondissement where we had booked tickets for the Van Gogh exhibition at the Atelier de Lumière. This was no ordinary exhibition. Inside a large exhibition space which used to be a foundry, a constantly shifting display of Van Gogh’s paintings was projected onto all of the walls. It was accompanied by music and had been digitised so that, for example, the birds seemed to fly over the fields. It was stunning.
When we emerged into the daylight we found that it was raining again. It seemed appropriately dismal enough for us to pay our respects to Nôtre Dame, recently gutted by fire. So we headed there by metro and saw the scaffolding and cranes; it was a sad sight. We noticed workers moving around on one of he towers so restoration work is beginning - President Macron has pledged to restore it completely within five years. We then paid a visit to the quirky Shakespeare and Company - yes, two bookshops in a day! We strolled the short distance back to St Germain and had beer (James) and hot chocolate (me) in the Café de Paris.
Our journey should have been straightforward; the RER directly from St Michel to the airport. But when we got to the platform we found that all of the trains to the airport had been cancelled. We made our way to the Gare du Nord where we had been told that we could catch a bus directly to the airport, but then we couldn’t find the bus, and then it turned out to be two buses. We realised that we were out of time, so we jumped in a taxi. The driver had to struggle through the rush hour traffic, and then drove like a maniac once he got onto the motorway! Anyway, we got here safely and it’s time to get onto the plane!