Paris
We had breakfast in our hotel breakfast room again this
morning, as it was included in our package. Though the breakfast was good, it
got to be a bit repetitive since there was very little variety. They always had
bread, croissant, prosciutto, ham, two kinds of cheese, and yogurt. The only
variety was sometimes they would have a chocolate croissant or some other sweet
mini-pastry. I grew into the habit of having ham, prosciutto, and cheese on
French bread with orange preserves each morning.
After breakfast, we headed over to the L'Orangerie Museum to
see Monet’s Water Lilies paintings. The museum featured to small oval shaped
rooms designed to showcase the paintings. It was very neat to see the paintings
after visiting the gardens and ponds that inspired them the day before.
The L’Orangerie Museum was a tiny museum with a small
collection. We walked through the entire museum in about a half hour, and with
the exception of the Water Lilies nothing stood out to me. The museum is worth
checking out if you have the Paris museum pass (which we did) or you are a big
Monet fan, but it’s not a museum where you would spend an entire day.
We then headed over to the Louvre, where we were planning on
spending most of the day. The Louvre was very crowded, especially around the
masterpieces like the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo.
I was going to get the museum audio guide, but when I saw
they were using Nintendo DS, I changed my mind, though we did go and get them a
bit later. They were fun to use because they were wireless and could direct you
to specific pieces of artwork, but they were a bit difficult to use. They had
only started using them recently so only a small portion of the collection was
included on it, and they still need to work out the kinks with them. I had an
easier time using it than Linda since I am more used to using video game
controllers than Linda.
I was surprised by the number of religious paintings in the
Louvre. I found myself very drawn to them, and was happy to see a few paintings
of St. Francis of Assisi, who was the patron Saint of my church. Some of the
paintings were really beautiful.
The room with the Mona Lisa was insanely crowded. They had a
roped off area where people could wait and more their way forward to get a
closer look at the painting. We opted to look at it from an angle outside the
roped area since there were so many people pushing and shoving inside the roped
off area.
After exploring the museum a bit, we were ready for lunch.
We wound up going to La Cuisine, which is a cafeteria near the main entrance to
the museum. I actually had one of the best meals of my trip here. I ordered the
beef bourguignon with French fries and Parisian Salad. The beef bourguignon was
fantastic with large tender chunks of beef, carrots, and celery. The Parisian
salad was excellent as well. It was basically what we in America would call a
chef salad, as it had strips of cheeses and meats on it. It was served with the
traditional French salad sauce (oh how I missed a choice of salad dressings).
After lunch, we walked around the museum a bit more. We went
to see Napoleon’s apartments at the suggestion of my friend Krista, and they
were pretty neat to see. We also found our way to the Sculpture area, where we
saw a living statue talking to a group of kids.
We also found the Venus de Milo. There was a school group of
young kids lying on the floor in front of her drawing her, and they were
adorable. The sculpture itself was impressive to see in person. Most people
only viewed and took pictures of her from the front, but I took the time to
walk around her and view her from many different angles.
We wound up heading back to the Mona Lisa later in the day
so that we could hear the audio commentary on the DS, since we didn’t have that
the first time around. There were fewer people in the area so we decided to
move in closer and get pictures with the Mona Lisa in the background.
Somehow we also managed to miss the Wedding Feast at Cana, which is
in the same room as the Mona Lisa, during our first stop in the room. When I saw the size of the Wedding Feast at
Cana, I was surprised that we missed it because it is so huge. I spent several
minute just taking the details of this amazing piece of art. There were so many
people and details in it. It was one of my favorite pieces of art we saw on the
trip.
When we had our fill of the Louvre, we took the subway to
Notre Dame. After seeing Sacre Coeur and the Strasbourg Cathedral, Notre Dame
was a bit of a let down. It is a lot smaller than the other churches. Though it was still ornate both
inside and out, it lacked the spectacular detail of the Strasbourg Cathedral and
the beauty of Sacre Coeur.
But it was definitely worth viewing because it is a
beautiful church with a unique look. I was surprised by how small it was. I
loved the stained glass windows and statues in Notre Dame.
We then started to walk back to the hotel. They were filming
a movie on one of the bridges over the Seine. I took pictures, and zoomed in on
some of the people, but none of them looked familiar. One of the guys working
on the shoot said that Morgan Freeman was in the film, but he wasn’t on set
that day.
After a quick break at the hotel, we took the subway to the Arc du Triomphe. I was surprised by how tall the arc was. I thought it would only be a couple of stories tall, but it was a lot taller than that. We found the steps that lead to the tunnel under the road, and made our way to the island that arc stood on in the middle of a very busy rotary.
We had learned from someone on the tour we took to Giverny
and Versailles that there was an elevator that took you most of the way up the
arc, so we were very grateful to avoid walking up all the stairs.
The view from the arc was amazing. A really funny guy
offered to take our picture with the Eifel Tower in the background. He told us
he was going to charge us to take the picture for us.
At one point, I walked downstairs to use the restroom at the
arc. It was the smelliest nastiest rest room in Paris. It was small and creepy.
My friend Diane would definitely thought this bathroom was a monkey cage.
We hung around the arc until the sun started going down so
we could see Paris all lit up. The view was even more stunning at night.
We then started to walk down the Champs Elysees to find
someplace to have dinner. We wound up going to Café Vesuvio, which was close to
the arc. The restaurant was busy, and everyone seemed to be getting the pizza,
so we decided to get some pizza ourselves. We wound up sharing a salad and a
Hawaiian pizza. The food was very good. The pizza had some delicious ham, and
thin slices of yummy pineapple.
Our server was fantastic. He was very attentive, and was
also kind enough to have the kitchen split the pizza for us. The hostess at the
restaurant was really sweet. She came over at one point to ask me where I was
from, and chat. When she saw Linda holding her camera, so she offered to take a
picture of us. She then lead us outside to take a picture of us in front of the
restaurant, and then a third one with the arc behind us.
After dinner, we walked several blocks down the Champs
Elysees. Since it was later in the evening, most of the shops were closed by
the time we arrived, but the Disney Store was open, so of course I had to go
inside.
We hopped on a train and headed back to our hotel after
another fun and busy day in Paris.
No comments:
Post a Comment