Louvre, Found and re-found

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There are thousands of tourists in Paris.

Thousands.

Only two of them could actually *trip* over the Louvre by accident.

We are the two.

Yup. Yesterday, Sunday, we decided to visit Saint-Chappelle and Notre Dame de Paris and St. Louis de L'Isle. So we started walking towards Pont Neuf, the bridge that gets one from Sainte-Germaine over to the island where these wonderful buildings are. We got so excited about crossing the bridge that we didn't even realize we had missed the island entirely (don't ask..anyone who has travelled with either of us will know it's possible). We strolled blithely down what we eventually discovered was the Right Bank, enjoying all the sidewalk vendors. We came to this lovely big building across the street from where we were so headed through its impressive portico into a wide open space...very impressive...completely enclosed by a 3 story building...equally impressive. On the left was another portico opening into another large space so we trotted our way through that. Yup. There she was. The pyramid that is the entrance to the Louvre. We were there by accident!! Who else could possibly find the Louvre by accident!! There were not many people around but there were soldiers armed with machine guns so we were pretty sure we were not going to be mugged. We decided, though, to return to the original plan and retrace our steps, which we did. On the way back, we came across a very clever little beggar who pretended to find a gold ring on the street, give it to me, and then return asking for money. Very good technique. I gave him back the ring and left him to prey upon some other unsuspecting soul. Interesting.

Saint-Chappelle and Notre Dame are truly astonishing. Words actually fail when I try to describe them. I picked up booklets about them because I don't think anything I could say would be more than "Wow!" Poor Brenda...I kept pinching her and saying, "We're here!" She nodded and said, "I know." many times. At St. Louis de L'Isle I actually stumbled across a painting that I am convinced is St. Catherine of Siena. The iconography is absolutely perfect for her but she's described on the paper mounted near that chapel as "une Dominicaine". *Une Dominicaine*!! St. Catherine!!! Somebody needs to do their homework. Okay, so I'll do it for them and write to them when I get home. The style is more recent than the 14th C one of her with the lily and the book but it's still pure St. Catherine.

Today we returned to the Louvre (on purpose) by getting up altogether too early, hitting McD's for breakfast (where one gets a better breakfast for a better price than one gets in North America) because it's the only thing that was open at the ungodly hour we were up! We had purchased 4 day passes at Sainte Chappelle, which was lovely because we did not have to stand in line for any of the places we went into today. The first place we went was, of course, to the Mona Lisa, where we actually were able to stand right in front of it. I know that sometimes the Louvre has been known to hang one of its copies of the painting when the original has been elsewhere so, cynic that I am, I don't know for sure whether the one we saw today was the real one or not, but whatever it was, it was quite amazing. The painting is really small but so impressive. After 3 more hours of looking at paintings and sculptures, our brains were fried. We were allowed to take pictures - without flash - and we did so now and then. We found paintings of the death of Roland (GNST 300) and of the lovers in hell with Dante and Virgil watching (GNST 300), of Liberty leading the people (GNST 500) and many, many of biblical scenes, early medieval up to the 19th Century. I took several pictures of sculptures of Greek and Roman figures for GNST 300 next year. The ceilings of the place are worthy of dozens of rolls of film but I settled for the art and sculpture instead.

We then headed outside, down the road towards the obelisk and the Arc de Triomphe, but did not intend to go that far. We found another gallery, though, with incredible Monet, Renoir, Cezanne...plus Rodin's "the Kiss". Sigh. What an experience! Our brains are now completely muddled with images. Somewhere along the way we each took photos of the other outside the Sorbonne (so I can now say that I have been to the Sorbonne), and I stepped into one of the many buildings of the University of Paris as well.

Brenda is learning what it's like to travel with an ADD person. She gets her head down and mind set on where she's going and off she goes. I say, "Oh, look, a bunny..." and head off in a different direction entirely. She very patiently tells me she's going to slap me silly one of these days. If so, I deserve it. But my 'bunny trails' are fun...and I find cafes, bakeries, grocery stores and various fun little spots that she might miss.

I learned an important lesson here, one that many travellers should learn *before* they get here. If one's PIN number contains more than 4 digits, many bank machines will not accept them. If that PIN number contains 7 digits, no machine in the country will accept it. So one has to purchase Euros using one's credit card and there is a 4% service charge for that. Sigh. Next time I will remember that little bit of info.

I don't know about Brenda's feet but mine are definitely feeling the effects of walking for a zillion hours. Crikey but they are tired!! We picked up a couple of good sized slices of quiche for supper and are going to grab some veggies and fruit and wine along the way home now. I might be asleep by 9:00.

Tomorrow I think we are staying closer to home, for which my feet will be thankful, though we will still visit two or three museums in order to get the most benefit from our museum passes. No waiting in line with these, which is nice....when we got to the museum with the Impressionists, there was already a long line of folks waiting in one place. The other line had nobody in it and that was the Pass line...so we got into the museum ahead of all the other folks. There are perks!

Time to sign off and find wine. For 2 Euros one can get something drinkable...we may spring a few more euros just to make sure we are drinking real wine and not licking the bottom of a keg.

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