Advertisement
We arrived in Charles de Gaulle at 7:45 am after a lengthy haul from San Francisco and then JFK (New York). Caught a taxi to our hotel because we were a little nervous to attempt taking the train for the first time with one luggage apiece. Parisians drive on the right side of the road, with cars as normal as ours - though not as large, of course and most of them appear to have manual transmission. We left our bags with the front desk of our hotel then took the Metro (Paris’ expansive and comprehensive train/subway system) to Musee du Louvre (ie: the Louvre Museum). On Fridays “young people” between 18 & 26 get in for free! Lucky us. Saved 18 Euros. Anyway, nothing could have prepared us for what we were to see. The world’s largest collection of art is indeed massive. Bobby and I had a very short list of goals entering the Louvre (glass pyramid, pay our respects to Mona, see Venus de Milo, catch as much art as possible without walking ourselves to death). We got lost twice, the second time, while looking for Venus de Milo, by the time we realized we were lost, it
Mona
She was a lot smaller than we expected... took just as long to walk the entire wing rather than backtrack to get to where we started. We ended up walking the Egypt wing, which was definitely interesting… but when you’re lost and looking to stop being lost, the magnificence of it all slightly loses effect. Two hours in the Louvre and our feet were killing us. We had seen what we wanted to and ventured out of the museum, around the area to find a café or bistro.
Many of the cafes around the Louvre were pricey, given the high foot traffic from tourists. We finally settled on a cute café with a large red and white striped canopy covering the available patio seating. Bobby ordered a ham, cheese and tomato Panini with a cappuccino and I ordered a mushroom omelet with a café crème. The cheese on Bobby’s Panini was extremely rich and gooey - definitely different from anything he’s ever had before. My omelet was expected, but the cappuccino and café crème were delicious! They could easily be drunk without sugar.
We then walked through Jardin Des Tuileries, the Louvre’s garden approximately the size of two football fields. Considering how tired we were,
Where to go next...
Sitting near a pond, figuring out the best way to get to the Arc de Triomphe. we almost fell asleep on a couple reclining chairs that surrounded the octagon shaped fountain at the end of the garden.
Given we had a couple more hours until we could check into our hotel, we decided to visit the well known Arc de Triomphe. The Arc was commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte himself to commemorate the victories of his army and is the world’s largest triumphal arch. The eternal flame that burns beneath the arch salutes the tomb of the unknown soldier. To get there, we jumped back on the metro, saw the Arc, took a couple of pictures and then headed for the Eiffel Tower (or Tour Eiffel as it is known to the rest of the world). Interestingly, this monumental structure was intended to be temporary and struck a somewhat sensitive nerve with Parisians in its history. In my opinion, it has a somewhat ugly and beautiful way about it. The gigantic structure of cold, hard metal contrasts itself against the gorgeous Paris skyline of aged buildings, yet is so grand that it‘s difficult to call it anything but beautiful.
Finally, after an adventurous and ambitious first morning and early afternoon, we checked into our hotel
and took a siesta along with the rest of Paris. As a side note, this is not uncommon throughout many parts of Europe as stores tend to close somewhere between 1:00 pm and 4:00 pm. Our room was small, but expected. Proportionately sized to our room, the elevator had capacity for one person + one suitcase or two people only. The Latin Quarter (the District where our hotel was) consists of a young crowd (close to a University) with great restaurant, cafe and nightlife options. Feeling quite refreshed after a four hour nap, we ventured out to explore the neighborhood. Dinner in Paris tends to be late - 7:00 pm is considered pretty early, though most restaurants will still seat you. 9:00 pm is peak dinner time. Bobby and I took a little bit of time adjusting to the whole siesta + late dinner thing. We ate at a traditional French food restaurant. I had escargot, a baked eggplant dish and mousse au chocolat. Bobby had French onion soup, lamb and crème brulee.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.063s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 9; qc: 22; dbt: 0.0442s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb