We were up and on our way by 8:30, heading for the Palmer House Hotel for breakfast. This is an historic hotel, now run by Hilton. We were amazed at the painted ceiling in the Lobby, comprising 21 panels depicting Greek mythology that was painted in 1926 in Paris by French artist Louis Pierre Rigal. It has recently been renovated and looks stunning. The ballroom is also meant to be worth a look, but yet again we were thwarted as a conference was being held there just now.
From here, we stepped out in the rain and walked to The Rookery, a building from 1888. Inside we saw the light and airy lobby updated by FLW in 1905. The original heavier design had become dated and the new design used much lighter materials. It is a lovely place. We didn't manage to get on the tour, so we didn't see the 11 storey high spiral staircase designed by Root, one of the original architects. Then we were off again, through the rain to the Institute of Art and after queuing for a short time, we were in and spent a long time enjoying their collections, including lots of Impressionist paintings-lots of Renoir, Degas, Monet and, of course, Georges Seurat's, Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. We also saw Van Gogh, Rembrant, Goya, El Greco etc., then went off to look for Edward Hopper's Night Hawks, only to find it was out on loan. Still, we saw Pollock, Lichtenstein and Rothko. There was also a special exhibition by a Kashmiri Artist, Nilima Sheikh who had made ten banners all about Kashmir. Our last exhibit was the Chagall windows, which are stunning. Set in a new area, they have been cleaned and just sparkle with colour.



As the weather had cleared up, we made our way through Millennium Park to see Anish Kapoor's Cloud Gate. This is fabulous and we had fun taking pictures there. As we still had time, and as the weather was a bit better, we headed over to the Willis Tower and took the lift up the 103 floors to Sky Deck. The views are stunning and we even stood on the Ledge. But we had to get back to the Dana to try and find somewhere for dinner tonight. We had noticed a couple of French restaurants in the little red book, and our concierge would book us a table. He was a bit concerned as the one we liked was one of the best in town! Anyway, he did manage to get us a table and we had just enough time to go upstairs to change ( not a lot of alternatives) and walk down the road to Les Nomades. We had a beautiful dinner, starters of asparagus risotto and foie gras with brioche followed by a duo of veal and lamb fillet and venison. We had Roederer champagne to start, then a Riesling from Alsace with the asparagus and Chenin Blanc from the Loire with the foie gras. The sommelier recommended a 2004 St. Emilion with the main course. Dessert was a lemongrass and ginger crème brûlée and a passion fruit soufflé. We finished with tisane. What a delicious meal and the staff were fabulous, too. A rare find.


Palmer House Hotel
Rookery
Institute of Art
Cloud Gate
Willis Tower
Les Nomades