Statues, Tombs, Mona Lisa, God, and More God

As you probably already guessed, I started my day out with…. An espresso and croissant on my way to the metro, and today headed to the Musee du Louvre. Before visiting the museum I had not realized that it was actually a castle/fortress that was built in the 1200’s and then rebuilt as a royal palace in the 1500’s, before eventually becoming what I felt like was the largest museum in the world. (I don’t know if that is true or not, but it definitely felt that way) My bunkmate Kyle from Texas was planning on visiting the Louvre today as well, so we decided to tackle the beast together. We started out with the antiquities, which was a great call. We wandered for about an hour and a half with our headsets through room after room of ancient Roman and Greek sculptures. The usual highlights here are Athena, the Venus de Milo, and the Winged Victory of Samothrace, which were absolutely amazing, but I equally enjoyed many of the other sculptures such as Diane the Hunter, Venus and Mars, Hermaphrodite (which oddly enough resembled Lady Gaga), and Hercules, amongst others.








Also in this area is a very large exhibit dedicated to Ancient Egyptian artifacts, which was also quite amazing. I quickly passed by a lot of things I had already seen while in Egypt like blocks with hieroglyphs, sphinxes, and such, but lingered around a couple of sarcophaguses which were originally in tombs that I had visited in the Valley of the Kings.


It definitely was a special treat for me to paint a picture for Kyle of what the inside of the tombs were like where these giant sarcophaguses had come from, as well as for me to be able to imagine those empty tombs filled with them. Absolutely amazing. From there we quickly worked our way through some paintings, not that they weren’t great, but just neither one of our styles, until we made our way to the giant crowd, which meant we had reached the Mona Lisa.


Now, I’m not going to jump on the band wagon and be one of those people who say it’s tiny, unimpressive, not that special, blah blah blah… I will however say that it didn’t blow me away, but not because of anything having to do with the painting itself. I just don’t think it’s that possible to appreciate ANY piece of art that is behind six inches of glass, and you have to view it from at least fifteen feet away in what feels like the middle of a mosh pit at the Warped Tour. From there we worked our way through more of the Italian paintings, and found what we agreed was one of the coolest pieces in the gallery, a vivid depiction of David defeating Goliath, that is on back to back canvas showing the exact same scene from two different angles. Very cool.


We then moved on to the French paintings, before heading into the Renaissance. At this point we had been in the museum for over three hours and agreed that we no longer would know good art even if it had smacked us in the face, so we called it a day. Kyle headed over to the Hotel des Invalides, and I made my way to the Cathedrale de Notre Dame de Paris. Magnificent does not even come close to describing Notre Dame. By far one of the most impressive cathedrals I have ever seen.





The amount of detail in the architecture both inside and out is mind boggling. I found myself stopping ever few feet because I noticed something new and incredible with the slightest change in vantage point. I wandered, in awe, about the cathedral for almost an hour before making the 422 step hike to the top of the towers connected to the Church.




From here I hung out with some gargoyles, made a quick stop at the bell tower that houses the 13 ton bell, and enjoyed yet another amazing panoramic view of the city. After descending back down the spiral of steps I walked to the nearby Ste. Chapelle. This monument, a beautiful Gothic chapel, was built in 1248, and is seemingly made entirely of stained glass. I was fortunate that at the time of day I was there almost of all of the windows were brightly illuminated by late afternoon spring sun.




Stained glass is one of those things that no matter how many pictures you take, you can never capture on film how truly magnificent and intricate the artwork really is. I sat in awe for quite some time simply appreciating the detail in each window, before deciding to make my way back to the hostel. One thing I had not done since arriving in France was eat a crepe (very thin pancakes) so I decided to try one from a street side cart just outside the metro station. Deciding on the banana and Nutella crepe I was not disappointed. Back at the hostel, I made dinner, caught up with Kyle about his day and headed off to bed as I was waking up early to make the hour long journey to Versailles.

Breakfast with Jim and Oscar and a Picnic with God

I started my day again at the local coffee shop with an espresso and croissant and caught the metro over to the Cemetiere du Pere Lachaise. There are over 800,000 people buried here, but I came specifically to see the graves of Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde. Forgetting to get a map from the office I wandered about for an hour, stumbling upon the graves of Chopin, Balzac, Pissaro, and Kardec among many others.





After spending my morning amongst the no longer breathing I walked across town to have lunch with Picasso, however the museum with his work is closed till 2012. Slightly frustrated, I decided to head to the Musee d’Orsay. I wandered the museum for hours, but spent most of my time viewing the impressionist works of Monet, Pisssarro, Manet, and especially enjoying pieces by Degas and Renoir. I was also able to check out a few pieces by Van Gogh, which was nice seeing as though I had already seen something like 85 percent of his work. I think if I hit one or two more museums with his work I will have seen the entire collection. Leaving Orsay, a bit tired and legs feeling the some 12 miles I had walked in the last two days (not counting the climb up the Eiffel Tower) I decided to hop back on the metro and head back to the hostel to relax a bit. After a short and much needed nap I headed up the hill to the famous Basilique du Sacre Coeur. The basilica, set high above the city, opened up to one of the most impressive city panoramas I have ever seen.




To top it off, just in front of the church were crowds of people gathered enjoying the live music session that had already begun by the time I had arrived. Perfect spot for yet another picnic. I found an open spot on the steps, made myself a sandwich and cracked open a half bottle of wine. I have to was without a doubt one of the highlights of the trip… live music, panoramic view of the setting sun over Paris, a baguette filled with freshly sliced meat and cheese, a glass of Cotes du Rhone, all enjoyed while sitting on the steps of a beautiful Basilica in Montmartre.

Fancy a Picnic Or Two? How About Three?

I started my day in a truly French fashion with an espresso and a croissant on my walk to the metro. The metro system in Paris is by far one of the easiest I have yet to use while traveling. I quickly made my way to the Eiffel Tower and jumped in the 45 minute line to climb the 324 meters to the top. There are two stops along the way, the first and second platforms that offer amazing panoramic views of the city.




After making the long, steep walk back down the stairs, I headed out in search of a place to find some lunch. Passing a local pastry shop that had a line out the door, of all French speaking people I knew I had stumbled upon the right spot to grab a baguette filled with French meat and cheese.


I happily took my baguette and bottle of water to the Champs de Mars (the park that sits just in front of the Eiffel Tower) and had a wonderful picnic by myself. From the park I made my way over to the Hotel Des Invalides.


This impressive palace was once the home to 4,000 injured war veterans, before becoming an army and war museum as well as church and burial place for Napolean I, II, and III. I thought I could complete a tour of this building in about an hour. It took me three and a half. I started out with a tour of the war and armory section beginning with Luis XIII and worked my way through the first and second world wars.




There was also a very cool interactive audio exhibit on Charles DeGaulle that took about an hour to complete. I think a lot of people have misconceptions of the French as being arrogant, stubborn, and snobbish, I too at one time could have been lumped in with those ignorant people. However, the DeGualle exhibit really helped me to understand where that sense of pride comes from, and to be completely honest, if I were French, I would be proud as well. DeGaulle, almost single handedly rallied a broken, conquered, and divided nation, unified them and fought for and won their independence. France came out of the war still broken, but liberated, and continued to fight to rebuild their nation, eventually become one of the leading powers of the world. Again, something I believe should give them a sense of individuality and pride. After the exhibit I headed over to the Eglise du Dome, part of the palace structure which has a small yet magnificent church and also contains the elaborate tombs of the Napoleans.




From here I made the long walk across town to the Luxembourg Gardens. I had heard that this was a very popular place for the locals to hang on a sunny day to eat, drink, play cards, football, smashball, and just hang out. I stopped by a market on my way, bought a baguette, some meat, some cheese, and a half bottle of wine to have my second picnic of the day at the Luxembourg Gardens. Arriving in the large park I passed tennis courts and pony rides as I made my way to the main garden just in front of the palace and next to the main fountain. Here I noticed that the statues and fountains in the garden were not huge and elaborate, but rather quite small and simple, allowing the focus to be on just simply enjoying life and those you are with. I, being alone, did just that and had a fantastic picnic and enjoyed my own company. Sitting on a bench, I cracked open my bottle of wine, made a sandwich, and enjoyed the scenery and the fantastic people watching.




After I had finished my sandwich I moved over to a set of stairs right above the main garden to get a better view of the people and took take in a little bit of the bright spring sunshine. Here a local couple saw that I was alone and invited me to join them with the offer of a beer. Damn those snobby, rude French people who all hate Americans. They asked me why I was sitting by myself and I shared with them the stories of my travels, and they listened intently and enthusiastically to my story. After talking with them for about an hour, the sun started its decent and was now hiding behind the trees and it was starting to get a bit chilly, so I thanked them for the hospitality and said Au revoir! Leaving the park I headed to the other side of the city to make my way to the Arc de Triomphe before sunset. On my way, as I crossed over the Seine river I was treated to a new view of the city backed by the colorful sunset.





I made it to the Arc just in time to see the sun drop below the horizon. I was yet to see the Eiffel tower at night, when it is illuminated and slowly worked my way, back across the Seine to the tower. Arriving just after nine o’clock I caught the very tail end of the light display that happens every hour after nine. Deciding to wait for the next one at ten, I set up shop on the lawn in front of the tower and made myself another sandwich.


Sitting there alone, I at first thought, “Wow, this would have been an amazing day to have had a girlfriend to share it with.” But as the minutes past and I thought about it a little bit deeper, I realized how lucky I was to be experiencing it alone. I recalled that throughout the day I noticed couples making out on the tower, in the gardens, here in the park, and almost everywhere else I looked, so wrapped up in the fact that they were in “the city of love” that I think they forgot to take notice of how beautiful the city actually is! There I was, alone in “the city of love” falling in love with the city and learning to love myself. As a good friend once told me, “…there are plenty of worse people out there to fall in love with.” And at this moment, Jamie, I couldn’t agree more.