Man Smoking a Pipe. Finally.

So I had today and have tomorrow off. And thank goodness, I really needed a break from working on blown apart Canadians from Afghanistan. An understatement: It's been taxing.

Today we went to Mannheim, Hessen, in search of Cezanne. It was a three hour oddysey that turned out well. I found my Helen.

The Luv in Paris was too crowded, the Met in NYC is too big, the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam is too touristy, and the Smithsonian in DC is too... well, it's not the Mannheim Art Gallery.

What is the MAG then? By far my new favorite gallery--spacious, great variety, sensible, beautiful space.

A few gems... Munch, Van Gogh, Dix, Lieberman, Warhol, and of course, Cezanne.

Best part-I was literally one of two people in the entire gallery.

I had twenty minutes alone with Paul. I've been waiting to see this one for a while. It was worth the wait.