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Published: July 18th 2008
The day started with a visit to another iconic Parisian landmark--the Arc du Triomphe. After a trip up to the top for more views of the city, we headed down the Champs Elysees towards the Place de la Concorde. Lots of interesting stores to window shop in--from Peugeot's race cars on display to Cartier and Louis Vuitton to the usual suspects--McDonald's, Addidas, Disney, Virgin Megastore, etc. Closer to the Place de la Concorde, the bleachers and reviewing stands from the Bastille Day parade were still being taken down, and this restricted our access to the Egyptian obelisk in the center. We circled round to the Tuilleries Gardens, where we picnicked before heading to the L'Orangerie Museum to view Monet's Waterlillies paintings--impressive and moving. These and a small collection of Impressionists and a few post-Impressionists works gave the boys their first introduction to the art of that period and generated much discussion about what is good art. Quite fitting, as the Louvre was our next stop, and we powered through only the highlights in about 4 hours (listening to our old buddy, Rick Steves, on our iPods), featuring the Venus de Milo, Winged Victory, Mona Lisa, Michelangelo's Slaves, a few Botticellis,a Rafael
or two, and a host of other Art History 101 classics. And that was primarily in only one of the three wings forming the museum, which was the former palace of the French kings (until Louis XIV moved things out to Versailles) and was worthy of viewing in itself. We ran into the Bruington family AGAIN near the Mona Lisa--this is getting eerie!
We finished off a very busy day with dinner at Le Souffle--which, along with traditional options, has a fixed price menu consisting of all souffles. We each had a four course meal--three courses of individual souffles and a salad. We chose the cheese, goat cheese, spinach as appetizers; ham & cheese, salmon, crawfish, chicken as mains; chocolates, grand marnier, peach as desserts. It was heavenly! And quite a fitting end to a day of quintessential Parisian experiences.
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