Oh lala! Paris!

12 août 2011

Salut! We have arrived in Paris! We have had a whirlwind day that began at 4:30 AM when we left our London hotel and caught the 5:25 Eurostar into Paris Gare du Nord. We checked into our hotel and immediately made our way to the Louvre. At this point we were both exhausted, but with a little effort and a large kick of espresso we felt that we could conquer the day! We pre-ordered Paris museum passes, so we were able to skip the extremely long line winding out of La Pyramide.

The Louvre is an intimidating museum to walk through. It is impossible to decide what is the most important thing to see and what to omit. It is unrealistic to think that you could see everything. It just isn’t possible. At least that is what we know now. I walked in with the expectation that we would just take it slow and we would eventually see everything. Well, our feet thought otherwise. Alas, what we did end up seeing was amazing. The paintings and sculptures are all so great it is hard to pick just one or two to talk about, so I will spare you (I put a few pictures below of some notables). But, we both especially liked Napoleon III’s Appartments. There were multiple exquisite chandeliers hanging from every ceiling. They just take your breath away (not to mention the walls of gold!).

The Code of Hammurabi ca. 1700 BC

Jake with the Aphrodite de Milo better known as "Venus de Milo" 130-100 BC by Alexandros of Antioch- I'm amazed that Jake is the only other person in this picture because the area around this statue was overrun with other people. 

"Rock n' Roll Jesus"- didn't actually get his name, but we liked it ;)

The Wedding Feast at Cana, Paolo Veronese 1563- Truly impressive! This painting spans the whole wall opposite the rather small Mona Lisa. 

The Winged Victory of Samothrace 2nd century BC- This rests on the top of a large staircase making it very seem very imposing! 

Napoleon III's throne 

One of the chandeliers that dominates Napoleon III's Appartments- wowza!

When our feet couldn’t take it anymore we made our way outside. This is easier said than done. Getting out of the Louvre is no easy task. It took us about 30 minutes of weaving, turning around, consulting maps, asking guides, so on and so forth before we were able to breathe fresh air again. Oh and as a side note, Paris is empty right now. There are no people on the streets. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining, but it was just a very surreal feeling. UNTIL YOU GET IN THE LOUVRE. Everyone is in the Louvre and I mean everyone. This added to the complexity of getting out of the museum. Sometimes a wish that I had an escort or a stick to poke people with, but I guess that would be rude. One can dream.

Anyways, after we found our way out, we decided to get some cheese, bread, and wine and sit in front of the Eiffel Tour to unwind and give our feet a rest. Well, we never made it to the Eiffel Tower. It was a further walk from the Louvre than we thought. We got about half way and exhaustion overcame us. We made our way back to the hotel and sat in the courtyard with our snack. I love French cheese. I would eat it day and night if I could. Enough said.

We had dinner at a sidewalk café, which is always just so lovely. It was a little odd that a Prince album was playing in the background, but what can you do? Tomorrow we are going to Versailles. We are going to try to wake up in the early morn to get there right when they open. This means getting up at 6:30 to shower, out the door by 7:00, on the RER by 7:15, at Versailles at 8:00 am. We really want to get to the gardens before the masses of tourists invade the peace. So nevertheless I must get to bed. Bonsoir!