Musée de l'Orangerie, Les Invalides, Napoleon's Tomb, Musée de l'Armée and the Pompidou Centre

At petit-dejeuner we bid farewell to the lovely family from Victoria - they were setting off for other European countries after a day at the Normandy beaches (father and son) and Versailles (mother and two teenage daughters). One of the daughters, Sasha, is a very talented artist.
Once again, we took the Metro to the Louvre, then walked through the Tuileries to the Musée de l'Orangerie. Its collection is just as impressive as the Orsay's, with two rooms of Monet's huge canvases of waterlilies and many works by Renoir, Cezanne, Picasso, Modigliani and Soutine and many others (if you're into Derain, which I'm not particularly, this is the place to be). The Monet waterlilies or Nymphéas are superb and the two rooms have a wonderfully contemplative atmosphere.

The highlight for me was the Picassos. He was the greatest draughtsman since the Renaissance in my book and there are some great works from his "Rose Period" and into the monumental nudes of the 20s.

We repaired back to our digs utilising the Metro, buying a couple of baguettes on the way at Opera Metro for lunch. Then we sortied on to Les Invalides, a huge building on the Left Bank which contains Napoleon's tomb and the Musée de l'Armée. If you're interested in war, this is a great place.

The Musée contains a colossal amount of old armour from the Hundred Years War onwards - room after room of it:

Weird helmets:

Decorative cannons:

And blokes on horses:

Further along is Napoleon Bonaparte's tomb, housed under a massive golden dome:

The little Corsican is ensconced in this gigantic coffin:

And there is a magnificent chapel under the enormous domed roof:

Les Invalides' gardens are gorgeous:

And the golden dome is superb:

We took the Metro back under the Seine to Saint-Sébastien-Froissart and walked, or trudged, as we were completely exhausted by this stage, through the ancient streets of Le Marais to the Pompidou Centre, the apotheosis of Late Modernist High-tech architecture:

Unfortunately, I hadn't left enough time to explore this incredible place - there is a fabulous collection of paintings by Matisse, Picasso, Kandinsky, Delaunay and other modern masters. The entrance is dramatic: you ascend via escalators that are on the outside of the building. The roof has spectacular views of Paris:

Somehow we gained our second winds and walked all the way back home via some of the loveliest and most fruitful people-watching parts of Paris.
Tomorrow: Montmartre.