For those Parisians who are not able to escape the city and enjoy the summer, the city brings a little bit of vacation to them. Along the banks of the Seine, in certain areas, the city trucks in sand and creates a beach. Swimming is not permitted, but if you want the experience of water nearby and lying on sand in the hot sun you can have that. It wasn't open for leisure when we walked by this morning. They were still setting up the beach chairs. There were revelers on the sand last night when we drifted by on the boat so it is open "late."
The Louvre is huge. Sorry to 518 residents who immediately think of bad car commercials. It's very big. The museum was palaces. Underneath the glass pyramid made famous by Tom Hanks is the access to the various pieces and entrances to the various parts of the museum. There are no glass triangles to walk upon. Just a fountain and hundreds of people (maybe thousands at times) cued up to buy tickets. Jan read that you can buy an all access museum pass at the airport (which we did) that allows you to skip the ticket line. On Sunday we breezed passed all the lines and simply walked into the places we visited. Today, there was a line even for us, but considerably shorter because we were there early. I think we waited about 5 or 10 minutes. Later in the day that line cued up to a 45 minute wait.
We followed the advice from Public Television's Rick Steves when touring the Louvre. We made a list of the things we wanted to see, which included all the "biggees" and then we set out to do that. If you are going to spend a week or more just at the Louvre you can probably see every room in the museum. If you are dedicating a day or so you just resign yourself to the fact that it cannot be done. You pick what you want to see. Enjoy it and return someday if fate and fortune smiles upon you.
The Louvre posts many rules. No flash pictures. No pictures of the Mona Lisa of any kind. No one obeys them and no one enforces them. People pose with statues, something the Greeks forbid. People take selfies in front of the Mona Lisa. There is no crowd control. You just kind of politely push yourself into the front of the line over time and then push yourself back out. Viewing the Mona Lisa is what I imagine a mosh pit might be like, although a bit more polite. That is a prime area for pickpockets. Many people share that concern because I never saw so many backpacks worn in the front. It looks like the museum curators put something like transition lenses over Mona. The line in the picture is from the polarized, darkened glass over her. I did not use a flash.
In one part of the museum you can tour Napoleon's apartment. I am sure there is a good reason it is called the apartment, but don't picture Valley View. Think Rockefeller in Manhattan.
When you are on the upper floors of the museum it's nice to look out the windows.
Outside the Louvre we walked up what eventually becomes the Champs-Elysees. It didn't take long to meet some scam artists. One popular current scam is for someone to bend over a few feet in front of you and discover a "beautiful" gold ring on the ground. I am sure there is some reward for finding it which the person who "finds" the ring really wants, but is willing to sell it to you for much less. When the third person in the park approached us with the scam I told him that someone was very unlucky today because we just met another person who found a ring just like that about 100 meters behind us. He promptly marched away and did not see the humor in my sarcasm that Jan and I thought was funny.
The Champs-Elysees is still Paris, but with a little 5th Avenue mixed in now. There are familiar store names along it. There is a McDonalds. Parisians protested loudly when it opened, but it is one of the busiest places along the road and the most profitable McDonalds in the chain.
Eventually you find the Arc de Triomphe.
Did Mom still think the Mona Lisa looked small?
ReplyDeleteShe does not. We both thought that people don't really behave well in front of her, but she looks like she'd dominate a living room wall if hung in a house.
ReplyDeleteThe Mona Lisa looks small. I thought it was bigger. What you're seeing is a replica right? Isn't the real one tucked away somewhere safe?
ReplyDeleteNo. That's the real one. You watching some movie, like The Freshman, with Matthew Broderick?
ReplyDeleteJonathan said when we were in front of Mona that it looked like a church but in this one people were praying with their camera flashes. Continue having fun.
ReplyDelete