Sunday in the park with Alex, Musee du Cinema and more French film watching

Today was beautiful in every way. The sun was shining a lovely 75 degrees and the wind was just noticeable enough to cool overheated skin. I really can't believe our luck with weather on this trip. I guess we needed good luck with something, right? We started the day with our fourth (and last) visit to the local crepe place. For some reason, each time we go, the crepes taste a bit worse (really just the savory ones). I think we're just getting picky. But, I gotta give them credit for their caramel crepe with caramel ice cream on top. That's the best in town.

We hopped on the good old Line 1 after breakfast, transferred to the 14 and found ourselves in the Bercy neighborhood for the day. I've never been this far outside the touristy part of Paris (and really, we weren't that far out at all). At first the neighborhood looked strange, because I'm so used to old Paris, with the ancient buildings and streets. But I warmed up quickly after taking the short walk to our destination, the Musee du Cinema. It is located next to a huge public park, appropriately called Bercy Park.

First the museum. Alex and I were both pretty disappointed in the content of the museum proper. It was one floor, had a few interesting posters and artifacts from the beginning of film in it, showed a few clips (one of which was about eyeballs and super disturbing -- I can never unsee it) and highlighted a few directors that Alex likes. But overall it was a disappointment. The museum's gift shop, however, was excellent. It seemed more like an independent cinephile shop than a museum shop. We spent more time in there than we did in the museum itself. Alex picked up the only souvenir he's purchased for himself on the entire trip - a book bag that has the illustrations of one of his favorite director's movies on it.

The best part about the place, though, was the fact that it showed an array of excellent movies throughout the day. Alex wanted to see Beau Travail, a film by Claire Denis, which he's been wanting to see but couldn't find anywhere. The catch was that it was playing at 7:45 PM, so we had four hours to figure out what to do with ourselves.

Oh yeah! There was that beautiful park we walked along when heading to the museum. Lovely Bercy park made for a spectacular afternoon of people watching and nature appreciation. We picked maybe 5 different areas of the park to sit and relax, each with its own character and charm. We watched volleyball players, viewed kids playing in an newly emptied water feature that was now perfect for a game of tag, watched the leaves fall from the trees lining the edge of the park, saw children weaving among the shrubs playing hide and seek and finally at dusk, hung out near the cinema taking in all of the newly arriving patrons.

The film itself was excellent, and not understanding the French language was not a hindrance to enjoying it at all. Visually, I don't think we could have picked a better film to watch and the mood set by the director was obvious without words. The plot is about a man in the French military and his struggle with breaking free from the repression and constriction of his life and the resulting actions he takes because of it. So good. Our metro ride home was uneventful and easy (love that Paris public transit) and we were home safely and sleepy by 10 PM. Best day.