Day One - Paris 2015 Minipalais Restaurant

The Minipalais restaurant is located inside of the Gran Palais buildling on Avenue Winston Churchill (www.minipalais.com, 01 42 56 42 42). This is our second year to spend New Year's Eve here. The location is good and inside atmosphere is terrific. With growing crowds on the Champs Elysees - closings of the street has now extended all the way from Arc de Triomphe to Place de la Concorde so - we metro'd to Clemenceau but the metro shutdown during the fun. We had to walk back outside the street closure to the closest metro stop at Concorde to get home.




Minipalais Restaurant Entrance






Endive Salad



Pumpkin Soug



Filet Beof


Pear with Chocolate sauce


Raspberry and Meringue


Fruit Sorbet



Our New Year's Eve selfie

Day One - Paris 2015 The Borgias & Their Times

We always plan an afternoon activity immediately after arriving in Paris. It is the best way to fight off jet-lag and reset your internal clock to the new time zone. This year we went to Musee Maillol in the St. Germaine area of town to see the Les Borgias et Leur Temps exhibit. 

The Borgia family became notorious as many charismatic members of the family became statesmen or popes. Their bad reputation fascinated many over the centuries. These extraordinarily enlightened characters were also patrons of the arts, commissioning the greatest of Renaissance artists - with whom they often had close relationships - to produce
work for them, at the various Italian courts. 

The Maillol Museum’s exhibition not only features art depicting the Borgia family by the renaissance Masters themselves – Leonardo, Raphael, Michaelangelo, Bellini, etc. – but also that of their great enlightened contemporaries, including philosophers, scientists, and
theologians.

It's a nice exhibit and worth seeing. No English language signs so the 5€ audio guide is a must. No photos inside the exhibit space.