No Escargots.....Part Deux.

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The Tour Group, which I spent 3 weeks touring Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland and now France, after only an overnight stay in Paris, had left. Why none of them extended beyond the one day in Paris is beyond me. So left on my own, in a hotel in the fringes of Paris, I had to use the Subway or bus system, on my own, to navigate my way around this huge city.

The subway maps were about the size of a large Pizza full of different lines running hither and thither, with hundreds of dots with long strange French names. It was a bit of a challenge for me, being from a relatively small city with no subway system. However, I have been to Tokyo in the past, where sometimes, you needed to cross reference the Kanji or Chinese characters to the Roman spelled station names, to know where one was at and how close one was to their next stop. After a couple of tries on the subways of Paris through, it wasn’t too intimidating. However, I enjoyed riding the bus more, as I could see more of this beautiful place.

Of course, I needed to visit the Louvre and the Mona Lisa. Every tour book will tell you, you cannot see the whole Louvre, in one day. Anyway I was determined to prove them wrong. On the bottom most floor, was the Egyptian collection an almost endless collection of artwork, including huge burial tombs. How they were able to obtain so much boggles the mind. Wonder how much were left in Egypt for the natives there to enjoy. I did get to see the Mona Lisa and in spite of the no photo rule, saw flashes going of here and there. I also got to prove all the tour books wrong, and got to see the entire museum. Not saying I absorbed fully the true depths of all the arts they had to offer, though.

Also went to the area of Paris called La Defense, which is almost like an entirely separate modern city, very un-Paris like, that one sees in travel books or posters advertising Paris. There were many pedestrian only malls so one didn’t need worry about traffic while wandering the area, as Paris traffic can be quite frightening. At one end of this area, was what looked like a modern version of the Arch de Triomph, in fact in direct line with the real one. It was a working structure with office buildings in it. It seem rather plain and even a bit ugly to me, but interesting nethertheless. I suppose people are slow to critisize what they don’t like, as those who readily critized the Eiffel Tower, after it was built, had egg on their faces, after that.

Also just had to visit Versailles which was a rather short train trip from Paris. No sense in me even trying to describe the beauty and all the superlatives of it, as I could never do it justice. The Pompidou Center, a museum of modern art also was colorful and interesting to see, though I didn’t go in. Just wandering along the Seine, was interesting with the myriads of book stalls and others, selling other things.

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Photos

French Revullucion-Part Deux.
Note guy carrying Flag.