A small rainy day short-bus pre-tour with John and about 14 early-arrivers before the main tour begins. Our guide Corinne Bayle takes us to the Champ de Mars, a garden with a great view of the Eiffel Tower. We stop at the Peace Monument, which has the word “peace” inscribed in glass in 32 languages in addition to the graffiti. John plants a light column there; then on to the Monument of Human Rights, with inscriptions and bas-reliefs full of Masonic and esoteric symbolism.

Lunch is in a café with a waiter who starts off testy as we watch him arrange our big table, and he makes us look away for him, saying he’s shy and doesn’t like being watched. By the end of the lunch he’s having a great time laughing with us. Then on to the Church of Saint-Sulpice, and finally the Luis Vitton Foundation, a gorgeous spaceship-like new modern art museum designed by Frank Gehry.

Highlights of the museum, for me: a living sculpture full of layers of rocks and plants that looks like a giant submarine sandwich, and a pitch-black room with large movie screens on all the walls that continually play film clips of people preparing and then aiming guns, and finally shooting them directly at you for minutes at a time with roaring gunshot sounds. Makes you really feel the horror of violence. You come out feeling blasted open. Reminded me of a recent road trip when I spent 5 days in a car with Jsu.

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