After deep sleeping and crucial foot recovery it was time for an exciting second day in Paris! This morning it seemed that the entire hotel wanted to eat breakfast at 9am with us. The benefit of this was that we discovered a new room with more comfortable rooms as we ate our breakfast sandwiches. After we ate, it was time to go to the Louvre!
Photo for all who read the Dan Brown books!
A mac store in the Louvre!
Finland has no Starbucks so each time I saw one I took note (despite the fact that I did not purchase a mocha blanc). Not only is this piece of America present in France - the Louvre has two inside the building which I think is a little excessive but made me laugh a little.
Winged Glory
A huge crowd of people gathered around the Mona Lisa to take her picture. Soo many people.
See - I was actually there.
Around 12:30pm we left the Louvre using the metro stop in the basement of the museum and went to the Ile de la Cite to grab lunch and catch a 2pm free tour of Notre Dame. Near the Cathedral was a corner crepe stand - I had a ham and cheese crepe with salt and pepper - wonderful!
I am very glad we timed our trip to the Cathedral with the tour because there were a lot of details that made it a lot more interesting that even enjoying the space and stained glass. It was interesting to here how the tour guide talked about the variety of Bible stories and figures sculpted into the structure.
One of three Rose windows
It was so exciting to see flowers blooming while walking around the grounds of Notre Dame.
Next we went to St. Chapelle - I was really excited to see this structure that I have learned about in at least two architecture classes. The stained glass windows were recently refurbished. Although we had to wait for what felt like an hour, it was definitely worth it for me. I cannot believe it was my third time to Notre Dame but only the first time I went to this other key piece of architecture on the very same island.
Trying to get the ceiling, but my angle was off so I got in the way.
It started to rain so we decided that instead of wandering through the Latin Quarter again we would return to the Louvre for a little bit. Our feet were throbbing so first we went to the food court called "Restaurants of the World". The food offered there was clearly and unquestionably the most lovely food I have ever seen in a food court. I got a fruit smoothie and helped my father eat an apple-baked-triangle thing. We walked through a sculpture exhibit and then found ourselves in this interior sculpture garden. The most amazing element of the Louvre for me was not the art (although some of it was lovely and more of it was at least thought provoking) but the variety of architectural styles in one building. Each space had an elegance and clearly displayed the wealth of the person/people paying for the construction.
Napoleon (the third, I think) had his apartments in the Louvre and they were either reconstructed or preserved as an exhibit.
After finding some Nordic paintings on the third floor of the building, our trip to the Louvre was over and it was time for dinner. We went to the Latin Quarter in an attempt to recreate the excellent dining experience of Tuesday night. Due to feet fatigue, a little rain, and hunger we stopped into a place that was more of a bar but still had some good food. My steak was unfortunate, but the French can make some pretty good french fries. The most fun of the evening was that at least half of the words exchanged between me at the waiters were in french. Throughout our short trip, I tried to use my french knowledge as often as possible. Usually the individual I spoke to could not only tell english was my native tongue but would offer to switch our mode of communication over to help me, but it was still fun to try to find the words and phrases in french. I never thought I knew much, and I still do not, but it was really encouraging that reading and listening and speaking a little made me feel that I could be passible in basic french if I immersed myself in the language for 6 months to a year.
After dinner we headed back to our hotel in Monmatre. Our beds were only about three blocks from the Molin Rouge so we simply had to walk there and get a picture of it all lit up.
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