Day 3

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The day began with a walking tour of the Left Bank, led by Brad our tour guide. Our first stop was looking at several university buildings. One of the 18 university campuses was within walking distance so we paused to look at several buildings before heading off to Saint Genevieve church. I think it amazing that higher education is free in France and that they have very high standards and expectations. In America not everyone can afford to go to college so I think France is really onto something.
The Saint Genevieve Church was beautiful, housing the finger bone of the Saint herself. After exploring the church we continued onward to the apartment building where Hemingway used to work. Taking a tour like that really helped me to understand the passion that Hemingway had for Paris. The city is even more beautiful than I remembered.
We spent a while walking through a market place, Rue Mouffetard, which had an interesting founding. Apparently the priests who founded the market place did so after they had been excommunicated from the church for ingesting human flesh. The priests had unknowingly been eating meat pies made from the flesh of kidnapped, college boys. Today the market was filled with fun shops and we stopped at another small church, Saint Medard Church (patron saint of umbrella makers). The garden located next to the Church previously was a graveyard, so I’m left to wonder if anyone was left behind?
The group broke off for lunch and Alex found a couple of us a great little Chinese stand. We met back up with the full group about an hour later to take the Metro to the Louvre. We met our guide and set off for a 2 hour tour. The guide Jennifer, mainly showed us famous paintings and several statues with just a quick stop in at the Egyptian exhibit. We broke for lunch and I changed some money and then headed back to visit the Jewelry and then Egyptian exhibit with Leah and Gabrielle. This was of course my second visit to the Louvre and I can say that I’m pretty confident that I still have not seen everything in the museum! This second time I was surprised to find that modern art has been added on display with older artwork. I do not care for this but think that a separate wing should be devoted to modern pieces or perhaps relocating them to another museum. I of course will visit again the next time I am in France since I’m sure there will be plenty more to see by then.
It was pouring by the time we left the Louvre and we rejoined Alex, Kelly P., Art and Jessica to head to a cafe near the hotel for drinks. We found a nice, quiet café and used the time to get better acquainted. We had a couple drinks and then headed back to the hotel to catch up on sleep.

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Photos

Hemingway
The plaque says that Hemingway lived in this building but he actually only rented it for a place to write.

Street sign near Mouffetard Marketplace
The word "Saint" was chisled out during one of the backlashes against the Church.

The Louvre Pyramid
Me in front of the small pyramid.

Statute
Orginial piece that has been replicated elsewhere. It stands in a room that was formerly a parking lot for government officals.

Piece of modern art with the old
This piece is modern and is set up to conduct an interview with Neptune. The pieces have both been turned to create this site.

Back of Michelangelo's statue
The monkey was added to show a sexual aspect as the guide put it, "The monkey was a naughty, sexual beast."