Day 3, the FULLEST Day: Metro Passes, The Louvre, San Chapelle, Notre Dame, Scary Elevators, La Defense, The Latin Quartier
Ah, morning. Bright and sunny, almost. Temperate. This morning’s breakfast of champions were sandwiches we made from purchased items from the Epicerie. We took these little sweet breads; cut them in half with our fingers (we had no knives in the room) and, again using our fingers, spread this rich, spreadable cheese on to them. Then folded Prosciutto and Salami into the center and closed. Top that off with a cold French Coca Cola. Mmmmm, breakfast.
Just so you know, wine is cheaper here than Coke. Seriously; you might find yourself spending 5 Euro for one Coke. A typical glass of wine is about 3E.50 or 4E or so. And you can forget about a lot of ice. Lucky to even get a cube, I almost always ask for extra glacon. (ice)
So, it’s about 9 AM and we head down to the Metro Station Ecole Militaire, just about 2 blocks north of our hotel. We settled on 5 day Paris Visite Passes. Paris is split up into arrondisements or districts (example: our Hotel is in the 7th arrondisement.) Starting in the center of Paris, these arrondisements spiral out from the center like a conch shell. But with the Metro, they divide Paris into Zones. Most of Paris the city is in Zone 1 and 2. We went for Zone 3, so we had the opportunity to see some things just outside, if we wanted to. (La Defense, for example). If we wanted to go to Versaille, however, we’d have to buy separate train tickets for that.
The Paris metro and rail system just blows away most urban transit systems I have seen with the possible exception of New York. It’s just very well thought out and, once you get the hang of it, really starts to make sense.
These Paris Visite Passes aren’t cheap, but there value is SUPREME. They easily paid for themselves 3 or 4 times over as we rode the METRO just about everywhere once we had figured it out. The figuring out part was well timed since I don’t know if our feet could have taken another like yesterday’s brutal onslaught.
So, bought our passes, took the 8 north towards Creteil; got off at Concorde and transferred to the 1 going East towards Chateau de Vincenne, where we got off at Palais Royal, Musée de Louvre.
That’s right, folks; the Metro drops you off RIGHT underneath the Musee de Louvre.
The Musée de Louvre
We showed up at 9:30, just after they opened. The sun was bright and the crowd was thin but growing; much of it English-speaking.
You walk into this HUGE lobby area that does not look unlike a typical upscale American mall. At the center of this pseudo mall is this big, glass pyramid which, from the outside of the Louvre, is the center of the vast courtyard the museum nearly envelops. I say nearly because the Louvre is essentially a squared off horseshoe; Two wings (Denon & Richelieu) and the connector wing (Sully) at the end of the two main. http://www.louvre.fr/anglais/infos/plan_ang.htm
First stop: La Joconde aka…The Mona Lisa.
The Mona Lisa is located in the Denon Wing on the 1st Floor (You actually enter on the Lower Ground Level, then up to the Ground Floor THEN the 1st floor; so you can think of the 1st floor as the 2nd or hell, even the 3rd, if you wish.) She was moved on April 6 of 2005 into this new viewing room.
Ok, so I sort of rushed to get there. I wanted to beat the line, right? Christina wrote in her notes that I ran LOL; not true. But alas, I can be a little hard to keep up with in Museums.
We walked (or ran) hurriedly up these vast stairs. Past the famous “Winged Victory” sculpture, we took a right, following the signs for La Joconde.
These massive, MASSIVE halls with paintings everywhere; large, small, significant and insignificant, I don’t think anything I or anyone else can tell you can prepare you for the impact this museum’s size will have on you. It’s massive, and it’s humbling. Your impression of self inside this place is almost penitent because you are standing in these massive wings with just this…history surrounding you. It’s overwhelming.
When we reached Salon 6, you could sense the energy coming from the room. I won’t be pretentious and say it came from the painting per se. This energy was coming from the people; their pre-conceived notions of it, their anticipation and, perhaps hopefully, their excitement at having just seen it. I’m moments away from seeing the most famous painting in the world.
Now, regarding my own pre-conceived notions: They have been downplayed a bit. Primarily the off-putting fact of the Mona Lisa visage being on every jar, mug, shirt, poster, garden hose, toothbrush, candy bar and double ended dildo this side of Texas, you don’t need to stretch the truth to see why someone might pre-conceive it as overrated. Also, I have had friends who have seen it whose first remark was a whiny tone along the lines of “it’s tiny!” So, this is what I had going in.
And it’s not what I had going out.
The painting is remarkable for a few reasons: #1, it’s a lot warmer than you expect. Given that you’ve seen it on every jar, mug, shirt, poster, garden hose, toothbrush, candy bar and double ended dildo this side of Texas, let’s just say that most of these items don’t have the, shall we say, clarity of the original. (That’s one way to put it right?) But the original, as it teases you behind bullet proof and no doubt weather proof glass, just exudes a warmth that doesn’t so much make you go wow, as it almost nurtures. Her so called mysterious smile—to me, anyway—looked more like the smile of a loving and doting mother. She was just as gracious for your presence as you were for hers.
And it actually is just a little larger than I expected, but given that I’ve painted before, I sort of expected what 30”x 20” looks like.
I’m also glad we saw it early. The line wasn’t very long maybe 3 or 4 people deep, and I was able to get in next to the railing.
We continued on throughout the Denon wing seeing paintings so massive in size that I find it ridiculous to call them simply amazing or whatever superlative comes to mind. Actually, HOLY SHIT, seems to ring well at times. It’s as you walk down these halls that you get the sense as why people say it’d take forever to get through this place if you looked at every painting. You just can’t.
But you can try.
And saw just about everything we did. I don’t mean we literally viewed every painting, but we did our best to cover as much ground as we could. We probably spent the slowest time, and the most views on the 1st and 2nd floors of both wings. These housed the French paintings, the Dutch paintings, and the Large Format paintings.
She thought I looked like this guy; whatya gonna do?
We also saw Aphrodite aka the Venus de Milo
and Napoleon III’s Apartment (dining room and Grand Salon). Napoleon had a bit of a penchant for the ornate, didn’t he?
Lunch.
We could have opted for sandwiches but we were feeling for the good stuff. So we ate at the Grand Louvre Restaurant. We ordered the escargot (Why? Cause escargot rules), and split the Cabillaud et chorizo (Cod and sausages) in this INSANE SAUCE. The wine was nice and, despite this essentially being a tourist attraction, the food was excellent.
Now, we were at a bit of a crossroads that was quickly rectified. It was about 1:30 PM and we had two options before us: continue to really spend the rest of the day at the Louvre, or see just a few more things and move on. Our feeling was that we had spent about 4-5 strong hours there and once we had seen two more main exhibits, our time would be better spent checking out other things in Paris. The truth is we had had a wonderful visit to the Louvre and our visit really encompassed a great primer regarding the overall vibe of this unbelievable museum. So, we continued by checking out the Lower Ground Level where we saw the Medieval Louvre
(back in the 1200’s it was a medieval fort for Phillipe Auguste) and
then up to the Apollo Gallery where the Crown Diamonds are located (Christina, a jeweler, believes they are fake. Or more euphemistically: a replica.)
So, now it’s about 3 PM and we are leaving the Louvre. A tremendous day, and unbeknownst to us, still much more to come (a benefit to playing the game “hey, let’s go that way!”).
After about ½ mile East along Quai de Louvre we found Pont Neuf, the oldest bridge in France. Along the way, a kind old French nun greeted me with the phrase “Tres beau!” where I’m guessing she was referring to the weather. Too sweet.
We traversed the bridge to the Isle de La Cite, a small island in the middle of the River Seine that is home to Sainte Chapelle and the Notre Dame Cathedral. The neighborhoods on this isle were just magnificent and I think it was at this point we said, screw this we’re moving here! LOL
First stop was Sainte Chapelle next to the Palais de Justice (I wonder if the French version of Aquaman lives there. Ahem, I digress). This is a gothic chapel built in the 1240’s and is two tiered; the bottom for the servants and the top for the playa’s. It is absolutely stunning. I was told that, at the start of World War II, the stain glass windows (among the world’s jewel of gothic architecture) were removed, hand numbered and hidden under the church to avoid damage.
You can’t believe this place. It’s small but one of the prettiest things we’ve seen so far. A lady in the corner would occasionally beg “Silencieux! Silencieux, si’l vous plait” any time the murmurs would reach her version of unacceptable levels. The quiet though really helped the impression of the place.
We walked about 5-10 minutes over to the Notre Dame Cathedral.
This place took 300 years to built, and for all you Victor Hugo fans, was also a must see. Hell, Napoleon crowned himself here! DeGaulle’s Requiem Mass was here!
After a quick walk through the actual cathedral, we stood in line for the steps to the bell tower, eating some Glace Fraise for a refreshing good time (strawberry Italian Ice Cream). We walked the 442 steps to the bell tower,
and then more to the top. The view was pretty amazing. I’m really starting to run out of superlatives, so I’ll just let you see for yourself.
It’s now 5:45, almost 6pm. What to do? How about take the metro CLEAR across town to visit the Grande Arche at La Defense!
Located on the very westerly outskirts of town, the architecture and buildings in this little pocket of Outer Paris felt more like Blade Runner than the Hunchback. WOW. The Grande Arche is insane!!!!
Even more insane, were the glass elevators of death we took to the top. Ok, these elevators were completely glass enclosed, and held together by fishing wire (I’m being dramatic, I realize, but you get the point, look at them in the first picture, from a distance).
And as you rise to the top, nothing in your body is telling you this is right. This ride is scarier than any roller coaster I have ever been on. And it’s slow, leisurely approach to the top makes it that much more frightening. That was worth the Euros, man!
Views from the top of La Defense
Arc De Triumphe in the distance
And the funny thing is: it’s almost 8pm in these pictures! The sun wasn’t even close to setting. The other funny thing? We weren’t really that tired! Maybe we finally got our sea legs, as it were, what-what.
Realizing the time—and our stomachs were way ahead of us—we headed back to the hotel to go clean up and head out to a restaurant that was highly recommended by a friend. (I TOLD you this was a FULL day!)
Dinner.
The place was called “Fish,” and was in the Latin Quartier. Such a great atmosphere, it’s run by an American and British Expatriate.
Suggested to us by our really close friends Pat & Rochelle, this restaurant turned out to be the 2nd best restaurant we ate at. I had homemade Frois Gras for appetizer (called Entrees in French), some insane sea bass dish, and chocolate mousse for dessert.
Back to the hotel at around 12 AM.
Whew…Day 3 complete! Tomorrow: Versailles.
