Parisian adventures with the Woods: Day 2

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Day 2 in Paris is going to be a busy day, we're going to Musee du Louvre, Musee d'Orsay and Notre Dame, luckily their all located in the same general area but before we hit the streets of Paris, a proper French breakfast is in order. The weather is great, its about 60 degrees in the morning so I walk down the street to Erik Kayser Artisan Boulanger and order two croissants, two apple turnovers and two cups of cappuccino. This was our routine breakfast while we we're in Paris by about the third day, the store manager already knew what I wanted when I came in the store, I like good customer service, after receiving our food, I said merci to the manager and was on my way back to the hotel. If you never been lucky enough to eat French bread, you have to try it, the French are serious about their bread, they bake fresh bread every morning and it is a part of all their meals throughout the day and since they don't use preservatives in the bread it is only good for the day, after that it's hard and has to be thrown out. So every morning you see Parisians heading to the bakery to get their fresh bread for their meals. Okay enough about French bread I miss it already, we finish our breakfast and get dressed for our day in Paris. I grab my camera bag and make sure all the passes for the museums are in their, got everything off to the train station, we catch the 14 train and get off at the Gare de Lyon stop so we can switch to the 1 train, trains in Paris run about every 5 minutes so you never have to wait long for a train. Our train ride from Gare de Lyon to the Musee du Louvre is about 15 minutes, we're off the train and into the mass of people all seemingly headed towards the same destination. Once we walk up the stairs we see thousands of people out and about, then their is this massive building in front of us and we see the famous pyramid that is the entrance to the Louvre. We walk around outside for a few minutes, taking pictures of the statues and the building itself, also avoiding the peddlers selling cheap trinkets and souvenirs. The line to the entrance is very long but luckily I bought tickets in advance their is a second line with no one waiting for people with tickets already, so we jump in that line and walk right in. Once inside their are threes halls, of course I want to see the Mona Lisa first, so I get a map to find out where it's located, my wife not too interested in seeing it or more so dealing with the crowd that comes with seeing the Mona Lisa follows me to the Denon Hall where its located. We head up the escalator to floor where the Mona Lisa is located, while we're walking we admire the many beautiful statues located in the hall, I see the sign pointing to the Mona Lisa so my wife says she'll stay here and admire the artwork while I go up the stairs on my mission. Another thing about Paris there are a lot of stairs in this city, if you see an escalator or lift take advantage cause they are few and far between. I make my way up the massive stair case and head around the corner, another sign pointing right to the Mona Lisa, I'm thinking it has to be in this building somewhere. I find myself in this long hall full of Italian Paintings and in a room with 3 order paintings, voila there it is The Mona Lisa, it is the only painting I saw in The Louvre that was behind a barricade and a glass. It was a crowd around it taking pictures but there is an advantage to being tall, I worked my way in to the crowd took a few pictures of the painting observed it for a moment then I got out of the crowd and headed back to the hall to meet my wife. She had already walked to the other side but I found her and we continued exploring the massive building. The size of the Louvre you need to dedicate 2-3 full days to see everything but we were in town for five days, so a few hours was all we had before our next destination. We looked at some French art and some of the furniture from Louis XIV's apartment then it was time to eat and recharge the battery. We finished our lunch then it was off to stop two, the Musee d'Orsay which was only about a ten minute walk from the Louvre. By the time we left the Louvre it was about 75 degrees outside and the sun was out, it was a beautiful day to be outside and the walk to the Orsay was pleasant. Some of the old buildings reminded us of the French Quarter in New Orleans, seeing the people out at the cafes enjoying the day made us feel like something out of a French movie. We crossed the Seine River and to our left is big red flag with an O on it, letting us know where the d'Orsay is located we get to the corner and its a very short line to enter the museum. The Louvre is closed on Tuesdays so the crowd is much bigger on Tuesday but today it's a modest crowd which allows us to enjoy the art without dealing with the crowds. We walk in and I check in my camera bag since pictures are not allowed inside the museum, after that we head up to see some art. The art in the d'Orsay isn't as old as the Louvre the works of art are from 1848 to 1914, after get a map we decide we want to see the van Gogh and Claude Monet paintings in the impressionist art section. I'm not an art expert but it was still quite interesting to see the different styles of painting, how Monet and Van Gogh painted their paintings one stroke at a time just shows the time and dedication they put into their work, even saw the famous van Gogh painting missing his ear. We were able to see just about the entire museum in about two hours, our art experience was done for the day next stop Notre Dame. By this time we were both getting tired so luckily the metro stop was right in front of the museum and their was a stop right by Notre Dame, so that was perfect. We get off the train and go up the stairs, right across the street stands the Notre Dame Cathedral, there is a pretty long line but it's moving quickly so we get in line and within ten minutes were inside. The inside is amazing, the detail in the statues, the architecture is all so beautiful and the stained glass windows are a sight to behold. We walk thru quietly some people are their to actually pray, while it is a tourist site it is still a place of worship so you must respect those people. We take our time taking it all in and we're back outside, I decide to heard to the Towers and once again I have a ticket so I don't have to wait in line but getting to top is definitely a workout it's close to 300 stairs to the top, yep more stairs. It's an old spiral stair case, and it feels like I'm just going in a nonstop circle until I see a ray of sunlight, I'm finally at the top. I'm in pretty good shape but that climb took something out of me, after taking a few moments to catch my breathe, I'm admire the view from the Tower, I even get to see the gargoyles protecting the church. After a few minutes of admiring the gargoyles and tower one of the workers tell me their are more stairs for an even better view, I've climbed 300 stairs what's 100 more? So I take the journey all the top of the Cathedral, while up there the bells in the tower start to ring, thats a pretty cool thing to experience being so close to the bell tower, after a few minutes I make my way back down to the bottom it's always a lot easier going down than up. My wife is sitting outside waiting on me so I sit down for a few minutes before we make our journey back to the hotel. It's been a busy day but lots of fun, seen a lot of history, art and amazing architecture but it's time for some ice cream and some French television, I don't know what their saying but it makes for some good entertainment. Day 2 in Paris is done, time to get some rest cause Day 3 we're going to spend some quality time with royalty, au revoir until tomorrow.

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