Louvre and Musee d'Orsay - July 8, 2010

 Senne's Summary: We went to the Louvre and the Musee D’Orsay. It’s getting hot out there :)

Wednesday July 7, 2010

We woke up late again and ran a few errands before Carey arrived. We returned home just in the nick of time, because as we walk back up the street there she is walking up our street from the other direction! We head inside and discussion the "spaciousness" of the apartment… and can’t really figure out how we are all going to sleep in there!

We decide it’s not a great idea to hang out in the little apartment so head out to see Paris. Carey gets a batobus pass and we head down the Seine. The weather is HOT today, so it’s a little like sitting in a greenhouse in the boat, but we don’t complain! Hot = good. 

On the Batobus

We get off the batobus at the Louvre and head inside from the sneaky underground way. Luckily for us there is a giant food court under there, so we eat a little food to help us stay coherent in the giant museum. I don’t know if it was because it was later in the day and it was their evening opening, or if it was because we went in the sneaky underground way, or if we were just lucky… but we basically bought our tickets and went straight in. I have yet to encounter all the giant lines I’ve read about on the Internet (knock on wood!).

Note from Steve: We were lucky as the Louvre seemed very uncrowded. We walked wherever we wanted and were able to see everything we wanted. As we were leaving hordes of people were coming in, so maybe we were just lucky.

The Louvre is an amazing place, and I highly recommend that you go in and take a look if you are ever in Paris. None of us really knew anything about art, but were still able to appreciate the beauty of the sculptures and Italian Renaissance paintings we saw.

 

Inside the Louvre

 

Puzzled by something...

 

 

 

Some of the paintings are gigantic!

Note about the Mona Lisa: I saw it and was underwhelmed. Somebody help me figure out what I am missing. There were way more paintings that seemed more difficult, more beautiful and more interesting to me than the Mona Lisa…

After a few hours of wandering around in there we head back down to the batobus and head home the long way around so we get to see the Eiffel Tower from the river.

We decide it’s a good time to go to a restaurant when we have our French translator with us 😀  We wander around a bit, and end up back very close to our apartment at a nice little restaurant with a fixed price menu (entrée, plat et dessert). I love those little menus at home, and love them in Paris too! The service in Paris is so fascinating. Nothing here is fast. They take their time, get to you when they need to, and take a smoke break out on the sidewalk in front of you if they feel like it. I definitely like the pace here.

We order a bottle of wine and our dinner and have a lovely evening sitting out at a table on the sidewalk in Paris. Carey is a bit disappointed that we left her date Carlos at home, but recovers when she has a bit of wine. Steve and I are impressed with her French as she talks to the waiter, but he speaks in English to us, which is very nice :)

We head home and try to figure out the sleeping arrangements. Suggestions are:

1)   someone sleeps on the floor

2)   we sleep on the bed sideways

3)   we sleep in shifts

4)   we just squish in

Well we manage with a combination of 1, 3 and 4. Steve stayed up late playing poker, slept on the very hard tile floor for 2 hours (bless his heart) and then gave up and squished into the bed with Carey and I. I’m not sure if any of us slept really well, although Carey (the gracious guest) claims she did. :)

Thursday July 8, 2010

This morning we get up earlier than I’ve ever gotten up in Paris … 9 ish I believe, and all get ready to head over to the Musee D’Orsay before Carey takes the train back to Switzerland. Part way through the walk down, we stop at a little place for breakfast (out on the sidewalk again) and then head over to the Orsay. Once again we don’t have to wait in line and get straight into the museum.

This museum also had some interesting pieces, but to me the most interesting thing was the actual building. We saw the very famous Water Lilies by Claude Monet, and I was once again left wondering what all the fuss was. I much preferred the Chrysanthemum picture by him… but what do I know? Steve’s favourite painting was the enormous “Decadence of the Romans”. (No pictures from the Musee D’Orsay as it’s not allowed!) We wandered for quite some time, saw some interesting paintings, a tapestry and some very 'unique’ furniture then headed outside and said good-bye to Carey. She headed back to Switzerland and we headed down for another ride on the batobus back to our apartment.

I made a fatal error this morning (must have been sleepy) and ended up with my flip flops on instead of my runners for our trip to the musee. Sigh. After all that careful work not to hurt my feet… hopefully we won’t walk too much in the next few days. Perhaps the last few days in Paris will be just lounging about! It’s definitely hot enough for lounging!