PARIS DAY TWO

Louvre. Louvre. Louvre. That was the extent of our plan for Wednesday, our first full day in Paris. We knew it would take a while, but boy, I don’t think we really know what we were in for.

We got up and started the day with breakfast at the hotel. They actually have quite a nice spread, and Chris was happy to partake of the individual packets of Nutella which he expertly spread on croissants .  After getting such a nutritious start, we trek to the Metro station and headed to the Louvre.

It took a bit more doing to get the Paris Museum Pass than we’d expected, but not much. The pass will let us get into a wide range of museums unlimited times for four days (you could pick different numbers of days), and it was yet another chance for me to use my French. Neither that experience nor my Metro ticket ordering had fully put me at ease about my French, though, and I spent the morning at the Louvre, in the back of my mind, being anxious about having to go to Le Grand Velfour (the fancy restaurant we’re having lunch at Friday) to confirm our reservation.

But that aside, we started walking through the Louvre, well, at the very beginning. We saw the ancient stuff, some of the famous paintings, a bunch of other stuff…starting at the bottom and working our way up. Until we got halfway through. And both just ran out of steam. I mean, a couple hours into the Louvre and only halfway through? We decided to head out, knowing we could come back another day.

So we headed next to Le Grand Velfour, not far from the Louvre. I’d even checked out a few words I needed to use in the handy phrase book. And, much to my surprise and joy, I apparently adequately accomplished the task, and as Chris and I walked out, a rush of ease swept over me. Okay, now I know this is silly, and honestly, people in Paris have thus far been super nice. But I just don’t want to be a horrible, rude American who thinks everyone should speak my language and expect people in their own city/country to act like they would in my city/country. So really, I was quite relieved!

At this point, we headed to the Arc de Triumphe, and went to the top. Let’s just say the stairs at the Covent Garden station have NOTHING on the nearly 300 steps at the Arc! After resting a moment after reaching the top, we headed out to the top deck, and BOY what great sights! It had been snowing all morning while we were at the Louvre, and though it had stopped when we left, once atop the Arc, it almost seemed like it was snowing UP the Arc because of the wind.

Our tour book said the views from the Arc were the best around (with apologies to the Eiffel Tower) and I wouldn’t be surprised if that was true. After all, it’s located in the center of the city, with something like twelve roads heading off it. The views (and hopefully our pictures will even begin to capture the views) were just incredible.

We hung out on top there for a while, headed down a few steps to visit the (disappointing) gift shop then headed back down all those stairs to street level. Once down, we started heading for the Eiffel Tower…and it started snowing AGAIN!

Now when I say snow, even though it wasn’t sticking too much, it was pretty big flakes, and fairly think stuff. And you know what we discovered? It IS possible to lose the Eiffel Tower in snow! We got a couple blocks off track before we got back going in the right direction, all the while getting covered in snow! It was really pretty though…oh and we did check out another store on the way…it purported to be a drug store, but like Monoprix, it was a kind of one-stop-for-everything sort of place, from awesome looking pastries to clothes and fancy stuff of all sorts.  It was all we could do to not load up on all things pastry-ish!

We finally reached the Eiffel Tower, we decided that because the snow was creating near white-out conditions, it wasn’t going to be a good use of money to go up then…so we kept walking…and jumped on the Metro at the next station and headed back to the Louvre. We were determined it would not get the better of us!

So, back again the same day, we started where we left off…and kept going and going and going. Boy there is a lot of stuff in there, and the building itself is pretty awesome. I must admit, having seen most of the big stuff already, we went a bit faster from this point on. The Louvre is just amazing. But one thing I thought was really cool, though, was that when it had started snowing in the morning, with all the beautiful things in the building, we saw so many people (including ourselves) standing at the windows taking pictures of the snow. Even at the Louvre, God’s work is still more beautiful!

In the morning we’d seen the antiquities (though we also saw a few more in the afternoon) and such masterpieces as the Mona Lisa, and in the afternoon we got to learn more about the history of the Louvre itself. As a warning to future monarchs…given the longevity of the British monarchy, I would suggest doing as they did and NOT as the French monarchy did. DON’T BUILD ALL YOUR PALACES TOGETHER. Spread them out. People have a short memory. The British monarchy had a sort of crazy habit of using then leaving (fairly) empty small to medium palaces (I can’t believe I now think Hampton Court Palace is MEDIUM sized!). The French monarchy built (as it seems to me) fewer but larger palaces, and all that money and extravagance in one place? Craziness!

As we finished the Louvre (which I still can’t believe we did, and think they should have a t-shirt that says “I saw the whole Louvre in 1 Day!)” we decided to grab a quick dinner. Yes, we ate at the McDonalds in the Louvre. Yes, I know there’s something very uncouth about it. But it was yummy. And fast. And after eating, we decided to try once again to go up the Eiffel Tower since the sky had cleared again.

So, another Metro ride and bit of a walk later, we were back at the Eiffel Tower. This time, however, though it was supposed to still be open for a few hours, the signs said it was closed. This was disappointing but not surprising given that by now, the snow that had fallen had melted and then frozen, and the wind was really strong and cold, so I can’t even imagine what the conditions were like at the top. Our plans once again frustrated, we walked BACK to the Metro, stopped again at the Monoprix, then headed back to our hotel.

Chris’ feet are the worse for wear at this point, and we seem to be going through the range of European tools for blisters—and all this walking isn’t helping either of us—but it gets better each day, and rest is always welcome in the evenings!