Paris, FR (Part II)

Day 5: Of all the museums in all the world, Christina had singled out The Louvre as the one that she wanted, absolutely for sure, to see.

Having seen a huge lineup outside on our previous walk-by, we made a point of getting up early and arriving before the doors opened. Getting up before 9:00AM felt disturbingly like getting up for work, and our mutual difficulty in this department makes me a bit nervous for adapting to “real life” once we return. Too early to worry about that though, so off we went! There was still quite a long line to get in, but once they opened the doors we didn’t have long to wait.

It’s a big place. We spent nearly seven hours doing our tour, working in a counter-clockwise direction, from the Denon wing to the south, with its Italian, Spanish, and French paintings and sculptures, to the Scully wing at the east, containing displays of art and artifacts from ancient Egypt and Greece, and finished at the Richelieu wing’s French Renaissance. I think it’s fair to say that, while we enjoyed seeing some of the worlds most famous paintings and checking out some of the ancient artifacts, our favorite part was the French Renaissance, with its elaborate sculptures, and incredible rooms from Napolean’s day. Despite a vast array of many different exhibits, what the Louvre has, in overwhelming majority, is paintings.

We saw some pretty good highlights, like Mona Lisa, Wedding Feast at Cana, and my personal favorite (and likely the most “French”), Gabrielle d’Estrees and her Sister. I took many photos of paintings, but the scope of most of them is completely lost in the camera. Some of the paintings, if laid flat on the floor would be about the same square footage as our apartment in Calgary. It’s amazing to see the size of these pieces, then see a whole wall of them together, all by the same artist. These guys would have needed to sleep brush in hand to put out such a quantity of work.

We had a nice evening at home, cooking for ourselves again, taking care of more laundry, and relaxing in our private little space.

Day 6: We woke up and had breakfast then began the day in two very different ways.

I got cleaned up and headed out for a grocery run and to wander around our charming little neighborhood, while Christina hit the sack for a few more winks. While it wasn’t “early morning” by the time I hit the streets, it was a quiet and pretty enough morning that walking a few extra blocks to see which baker had the nicest baguettes felt like just the thing. By the time I got back Christina was just getting out of the shower, so I whipped up some snacks with the goodies I had picked up, then we headed out for some more sightseeing.

We kept quite close to home, visiting the area around the Hotel de Ville and Pompidou Center, doing a little shopping, and enjoying the relaxed pace of the afternoon. We had noticed tortilla wraps in the grocery store near our home, so had booked ourselves in for some home made burritos, and had a nice time whipping those up for our dinner.

Day 7: Today was the day we were going to meet up with Christina’s friends from iStock, Olga, Julie & Melanie. We weren’t quite sure if Olga & Julie had arrived or where they were, since they had no phone or internet access, but we did know that they had 5:30pm lift tickets to the Eiffel Tower, so we decided that we would try to catch them there before meeting up with Melanie.

We had time for a quick tour before that, so packed in the locations, taking a metro to the northern part of the inner city, to check out the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur.

We had sandwiches that I had made and packed on the steps of the hill/park at the foot of the Basilique, then wandered through the west shoulder of the Montmartre neighborhood, down the hill and came out right at the Moulin Rouge.

Unfortunately it was very tacky and modern looking, unlike some of the genuinely cool Moulin (French for “Mill”) buildings along our walking route. We had thought to go to the Moulin Rouge to check out the show there, but the 102€ per person (not including any drinks or food – also prohibitively priced) was enough for me to show them my backside instead.

Somewhat along our route home we passed Galeries Lafayette, one of the most famous malls in the world, and had to step inside to see what the fuss is all about. The main building is spectacular inside, and looks more like a gaudy temple, with vast quantities of gold (or gold-looking paint) colluding with more stained glass than any cathedral in a dazzlingly opulent display. Slightly more subtle are the designer-brand and luxury items, weighted down by tiny price tags bearing enormous numbers. It’s the sort of place where I genuinely don’t mind shopping, since only a complete lunatic would actually spend money there, while there is some nice stuff, and perhaps by the time we get home some of the items will have been reproduced by a somewhat less prestigious brand, and those reproductions will be available at my preferred price from a thrift store.

In addition to the high fashion on display, there was also an extensive food market and grocery area that had some pretty dazzling displays of its own, and reminded us of our visit to Harrods in London. We had our dinner plans already set, so we restrained ourselves from filling up on tempting goodies.

To meet the girls we walked over to the Eiffel Tower. It’s not close, but we were only in the early afternoon, so had a couple of hours to kill, and spent most of that time hoofing it across town. One detail which we had not noticed on our last visit was that the tower actually has several different sets of lifts and stairs, from several of the supporting legs.

The crowd at the towers base guaranteed that we would not find them at the bottom, so we headed up to the top, where we had a better chance of an encounter. We waited in line and then took the two different elevators to the very top. It felt a bit like one of those “Drop of Doom” rides that comes to the Calgary Stampede every year, not so much for the dropping part, as for the interminable climb. It feels like surely you’ve reached the top, and it just keeps on going. At last we halted, and climbed out to a spectacular view of Paris.

We took a look around, and got some very nice pictures, then sat at a conveniently located bench right by the elevator doors. Only about 7 minutes off from our best estimate of their time to arrive (based on our own climb time, and their projected start time), they came through the doors, and Christina greeted them. As girls do when things are exciting, they filled the air with shrill greeting and exclamations. They had not been expecting to meet us, so it was an enthusiastic time.

Once they had their look around we descended together, and then had some pictures from the bottom. Christina had been hoping for a specific shot of us at the base of the tower, so both visiting girls took to their cameras and we started modelling. We’ll have to wait for those, however, until they are sent over.

We went to their apartment, also rented via airbnb.com, by way of a grocery store for some wine and cheese and visited for a while, until Melanie showed up, and we all packed off to a Cuban restaurant that Mel had recommended. We had an enjoyable meal, and lingered a little longer than we should have. On the way home we missed the last metro train. Luckily for Mel, her place was within walking distance from the restaurant. We managed to get on one line (in the complete opposite direction) hoping to connect to another train line, since platforms were closing left and right. In the end, we came out from bowels of the metro had to hail a taxi. We separated from the other two girls near their apartment in the St. Paul area, and walked the rest of the way home.

Day 8: After our busy day and late night we both slept like the dead, and didn’t get up until after 11AM. We had made plans to meet the girls at Mel’s apartment at 12:30 then walk to the park for a picnic, so we mustered ourselves out of bed, threw every consumable from our fridge into my backpack (this being our last day to clean up all the goods), and made our way over. We all walked over to the park, stopping for provisions at a grocery store, and set up for a very nice picnic lunch, which lasted several sun-soaked hours. Christina and I had to be back at our apartment to clean up and pack up for our 7:30PM departure, so we said our good-bye’s to the ladies and enjoyed a last couple of hours in our Paris home.

Olivier, the owner of the apartment, showed up right on time, and we had a nice quick visit before loading up our packs again and heading out. Though I had initially felt that the apartment was a bit tight, I feel that we fit into the space there very well, and we did not leave without regret. Our departing train was not until 10:25PM, so we had some time, but wanted to make sure that we were at the station and were as prepared as we could be, so headed straight over. After relaxing with drinks and a light meal we boarded. The first-class sleeper wasn’t quite what you see in movies. We were in a 4-bed berth, sharing with an elderly couple who were friendly enough, but it would have been nice to have our own private room. In our cabin for the sleeper train in India we had our own space and it was surprisingly luxurious. The disadvantage of a shared room was compensated for by much more comfortable beds, however, and when you spend nearly all of the trip sleeping (or trying to sleep, anyway) that’s the important thing.