QuALiTy BoNdiNg WiTh tHe oLd MaStErS & A sPaRkLiNg ChAmPs eLySeEs

Sunday, November 23rd

We slept in a little bit this morning to try and gain some energy, and made it downstairs by 9:00am for breakfast… yet again, the tray Nazi’s were around, but it makes it kind of funny.

Becca, her mom, and myself all walked ACROSS THE STREET to the Louvre for an morning filled with greatness. We started off with a little statue called ‘Venus de Milo,’ walking once again down that long marble hallway, with the statue as the main focal point. I think it is so cool how the museum is laid out, as far as focusing in on certain objects- this for example, and also the Mona Lisa, especially with ‘Winged Victory.’ That statue was on the bow of a ship, and in the museum, the viewer walks up a staircase looking up to it, before stopping on the main platform where it is perched on a stone that resembles the structure of the bow of a ship. It is easy to get so distracted by the content in the museum itself, and not notice the subtleties such as this, and lighting, and even the beautiful décor on the ceilings and walls… or maybe I just read into everything too much…

We continued on to other Greek and Roman sculptures, the Italian paintings, the Mona Lisa, French paintings (such as Gericault and Delacroix), and then went upstairs to the Ruben room (which absolutely blows me away every time is step inside), and then to the tiny Dutch Vermeer painting just around the corner. I was also happy because having been inside of the Louvre twice before, it was a lot easier to navigate myself around and find our bearings, so we had a little bit of extra time to see the Egyptian exhibit, which I did not see last time. We didn’t cover even close to the entire museum, but we were able to see everything that we had on our agenda.

The three of us left the Louvre around 2:00 or so, and decided to go back to the hostel to get umbrellas and some more warm clothes (as it was rather windy and rainy by this point), and then we walked down some of the back streets to the café district where I had spent a lot of time on my previous visit. We each got jambon (ham) and mozzarella paninis, and nutella crepes from a street vendor, and then stood in a sheltered corner to eat our lunch.

We decided to take the subway to get to our next destination, the Musee d’Orsay, even though it wasn’t too far of a walk, simply because it was pretty cold out, and was still raining on us off and on. Even though it was only about 4 stops away, we had to transfer lines twice to get across the river, thus giving us an opportunity to walk inside 3 different stations. Why do I mention this? Because we stumbled across one of the coolest ensembles I have seen in a subway station yet. I had forgotten about all of the street musicians that I have seen on this trip, as there are stricter laws against it in London. Just before the hall we needed to access, was a large string ensemble, probably 9 musicians or so, playing all kinds of classical music. The first song that I heard was one that Cody and I heard when we went to see Vivaldi by candlelight at St. Martins across from the National Gallery. We stuck around for a few songs, and they eventually broke into ‘Cannon in D,’ which reminded me of two very different occasions: one, out last night in Germany when we saw the outstanding ensemble playing on the street who played classical songs that slowly transitioned into jazz (absolutely awesome!), and also, the good ol’ days of the LIC’s, with ‘Buchannon in D’… or ‘Mr. Nice Guy.’

I was also rather entertained by an old French woman who I am sure was just passing by, and stopped to listen. She stood in front of the ensemble with her cloak and handbag, conducting in perfect meter and elegance. You could tell that she was obviously a musician herself, perhaps reliving her glory days. It was touching really. …We also decided that was going to be me when I get old and am unable to provide the air support to play anything anymore. Probably true…

After about 3 songs and one ‘Paris Metropolitan’ CD later, we navigated our way though the station to where we needed to go. We were a bit turned around at one point, but two nice young Frenchmen helped us out. Apparently we needed to hop on a train, since the line we needed to take wasn’t simply continuing on the subway lines…

Anyway, we made it to the Orsay, stood in line for a short while in the rain, and made our way inside for about an hour and a half. It actually helped for me that it was raining all day, as my doctoring up of my museum pass from September was starting to rub off a bit, and this way if there were any questions, I could simply say that it got wet from the rain if it didn’t look convincing…

I love the inside of the Orsay, and the bright interior and decoration. Upon entering, I said that it really reminded me of a train station, which after reading more in one of Becca’s mom’s books, we found out it actually used to be one.

First we went over to the Manet paintings, and then made our way upstairs to the Impressionism and Post-Impressionism exhibits.
Dad- You always go on about how much you loved the Orsay, perhaps more than the Louvre, and now I’m starting to put the pieces together as to why that is. You always really enjoy the Impressionism works, and I remember when we were little and you took us to the Art Institute of Chicago, the big exhibit there at the time was Renoir, and you really liked that. It makes sense that you would fall in love with the Orsay because it is mostly Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, whereas the Louvre really doesn’t have that. Just some thoughts I wanted to share with you…

After we looked through some Seraut and some other pointalism-esque artists, we made our way down to another corridor filled stepping through rooms of Toulouse-Latruec, Van Gogh, Cezanne, and Monet. Once again, we had perfect timing with getting through all of the objectives in the allotted time. The museum was closing, so we made our way downstairs to change into some warmer clothes, and then head out for our evening adventure.

It wasn’t nearly as bad outside anymore, the temperature wasn’t as bad, the wind had definitely died down, and we only had a little bit of drizzle here and there.

From the Orsay, we walked down the Champs Elysee where everything was lit up for Christmas. I had also looked up some things to do in Paris for Christmas before we came this weekend, and it had mentioned the German Christmas market. There were little white stands all the way down the Champs Elysee (until of course you get to the ritzy shopping district lining each side of the street), which weren’t really too German other than the few selling sausage and giant pots of warm potato salad. Several were filled with generic Parisian souvenirs, scarves, candy, really cute cookies, and much more. I ended up buying a light up Santa had that said ‘Champs Elysee Christmas, Paris,’ and an Eiffel Tower ornament with a wreath around it. We also passed a stand that had lights going crazy all over the place, a dancing/raving Santa that made me laugh quite a bit. Despite our mad dancing skills and the temptation to stick around, we decided to continue on our way.

We got to the end of all the booths in the market, then walked through the expensive shopping district, edging closer to the Arch d’Triumph. We stopped just before the underground walkway to look at the crazy traffic that goes in the roundabout in around the Arch, and then went underground to walk safely to the other side.

We climbed the windy stairs to the top of the tower, my ‘recycled museum pass’ did the trick one last time, and then went out onto the terrace for a while. It was really cool seeing the city lit up, and even more so this time with the trees on the Champs Elysee lit up for the holidays. The lights were really cool and somehow had an effect that made it look like there was ice dripping from them. This is my absolute favorite view of Paris, looking out to Sacre Coer on your far left, the Eiffel Tower (or Tour Eiffel) on your far right, and then the view straight down the Champs Elysee, to the Toullires, then the Louvre, and then just off to the side behind it, Notre Dame.

We stood up there and talked for quite some time about experiences I had on the trip and many other things, and just taking in the beauty of the city. It wasn’t nearly as cold as before, and we stood in a part blocking the wind. Despite a short bit of drizzle, it really wasn’t too bad at all.

After spending a while on top of the arch, we climbed back down and walked back down the Champs Elysee. It is also imperative to note the incredible limits to which we pushed my camera battery. Both Becca’s and my battery ran out by now, and my low battery signal had been showing up since the day before. Unfortunately, in the rush and confusion of things, I forgot my extra battery in my room. So, once we got down from the arch, we ran around taking as many pictures as we could of the list we had accumulated and got everyone we wanted with the battery literally giving up on the last one… maybe it was funnier in person…

We were getting hungry, so we decided to splurge a little bit and eat in a fancy café just past the arch on the Champs Elysee. I love the café scene in Paris! The waitor brought out some complimentary French bread, and we enjoyed the rest of our fancy meal.

One thing I am really surprised with is the amount of people and places I have found this time around who actually speak English. I cant remember having it be that simple last time I was here, and I certainly didn’t find that many people who knew our language.

After dinner we continued our walk and stood under the giant columns of Big Palace and looked across the street to the also very elegant and ornate Small Palace. We walked back down the Champs Elysee past the German Christmas markets and watched the Eiffel Tower sparkle on the hour once again. We continued past the Egyptian Obelisk, the Toullieries, and the fancy shops on Rivoli Street, and then walked down a side street with the giant Roman column which I believe is dedicated to Napolen. It is just the style of the Column of Trajan in Rome, with continuous narration friezes winding up the sides and a giant statue at the top.

We walked back just a few blocks more down the lit up, Christmas filled streets to the familiar blue doors of BVJ (our hostel), prepared for our ride home tomorrow, and went to bed.

The cute old lady and the subway musicians