I need new feet

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Geo: 48.8667, 2.3333

I don't believe I've mentioned the weather yet. Well, maybe I did, but it bears repeating. It's warm. It's really warm. All I packed were long-sleeved shirts and a pullover. I'm dying! And it's not just that it's warm (close to 72F today), it's also humid. Most of us in the group have been going out without jackets, but the Parisians ... the Parisians figure it's autumn and damn if they're not going to dress for the season. I can't believe they don't feel the heat, especially in the Métro where it's like being in a toaster oven. They've all got scarves tied fashionably around their necks, and they're wearing layer upon layer upon layer. I've yet to see a Parisian remove a layer. Fortunately, my room has air conditioning! Willis Carrier is credited with inventing the modern air-con unit, and if he was buried in Paris, I would go put flowers on his grave.

Weather rant over ... for today anyway.

Quelle horreur! There was no Nutella at breakfast this morning. I had to make do with raspberry jam. I do love it when hotel jam comes in little pots rather than nasty little plastic basins with peel-back tops.

To the Louvre this morning. I had originally thought I might skip the guided tour, having just done it a year ago, but then I figured what the hell. It was essentially the same tour as last year -- maybe a bit different -- but this year's guide was more interesting than last year's guide. Pierre-Jean (who was wearing a sweater and a scarf, naturellement) was very good and did an excellent job of shooing away the Japanese tourists who congregate like ants in front of every important piece of art. (And honestly I don't think they're even looking at the art. They're all taking their turn in front of said piece of art, while the other 49 members of their group take photos. It's Europe on 500 shots a day. Okay, xenophobic rant over.)

I have to say, I still don't get the appeal of the Mona Lisa. Pierre-Jean explained it, but I still think she's boring. Even Pierre-Jean admitted that the painting didn't become famous until it was stolen from the Louvre in the early 20th century. I guess the really amazing thing about it is that X-rays don't show any evidence of sketching or alterations beneath the paint, which means that Leonardo did the whole thing in one go. Far more interesting, though, is Veronese's Wedding at Cana on the wall opposite Mona. It's the biggest painting in the museum and was actually stolen by Napoleon from Italy. The canvas was cut from its frame and then cut into two pieces (you can still see the join), and then each half was rolled up (!) for transportation to Paris. They were just so cavalier about stuff like that back then. When Napoleon was finally out of the picture, Italy applied to the Louvre for the return of all the stuff Napoleon and the kings of France had stolen. Just about everything was returned, but the Veronese was not, simply because of its size. (Italy apparently received something just as nice as compensation.) Anyway, it's a colorful painting full of interesting characters, and it's also easier to view than the Mona Lisa.

Our tour ended around 11:30, and I suddenly realized how hungry I was. So lunch for me was (yes, I'll admit it ... oh, the shame!) a BLT and a mocha Frappuccino from the Starbucks in the Carrousel du Louvre. Hey, there's going to be a McDonald's down there pretty soon; Starbucks doesn't seem so bad now, does it? I took my food over to the Jardin du Carrousel and sat on a bench, surrounded by nervous pigeons and sparrows, to eat. It was quite pleasant ... and very warm.

After leaving my crumbs for the birds, I walked in the direction of the Opéra (the old one) so I could go to Monoprix. From the talk in our group, you'd think this was the Holy Grail of shopping, but I didn't think it was much of a much. I did manage to get a packet of antiseptic hand-wipes (with a sticker that says "Actif sur H1N1"😉 and a birthday card for Stephanie. Since Steph's b-day was yesterday, I walked back to the Louvre to mail the card from the post office there. Rolinka says it's the best post office branch in France.

At this point, I've done quite an awful lot of walking for the day. So what do I decide to do? Walk from the Louvre to the Bastille along the rue de Rivoli. It didn't look that bad on the map, but in practice it wasn't so great. My feet were wearing down to stumps, and I was so hot! I know: I'll buy a t-shirt. I went into C&A, H&M and BHV (which, by the way, has some lovely clean restrooms on the 5th floor), but it's October and I defy you to find anything with short sleeves that doesn't say "I {heart} Paris" on the front.

Despite my feet screaming "non, non!" I kept on walking past Bastille, past the opera house, till I reached a staircase that took me up to the Promenade Plantée. This is a disused, raised railway line that was converted to a public garden several years ago. It's a pleasant walk, with benches along the way. I sat for a bit and had a cereal bar and most of my Evian, and watched an off-leash guide dog go absolutely bananas exploring all the foliage. Its owner seemed to manage okay with just her white cane, in spite of a run-in with a stroller, and I don't think she was too worried about losing the dog because it had a really loud bell on it. John and I noticed last year that the dogs here don't seem all that interested in people, and that was the case with the guide dog. I think of labs as being pretty friendly dogs that like to introduce themselves, but this dog didn't even know there were people about -- he was only interested in crashing through the bushes.

I finally realized that if I didn't get back down to street level, I would wind up in Bercy and have to take the (freakin' hot) Métro back into town. So I walked back to the hotel and am writing this and resting till dinner time. I might go out with two of the other single travelers, Holly and Yvonne, who have the room next to me. In the meantime, I think I'll research the feasibility of a double foot transplant.

LATER: After hanging around my room for a couple of hours blogging, Skyping and watching an episode of "Rex" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108829/), I went to dinner with Yvonne, Holly and Bert. We walked over to the area around Place des Vosges and checked out four places. We finally made a decision when it started to rain. After we were seated at Café Hugo, we felt very lucky to be indoors because it stopped just raining and started monsooning. There was thunder and about a squillion flashes of lightning and no, I'm not exaggerating. Fortunately, it only lasted about five minutes, although the lightning went on till we eventually left at 9:45.

I learned an expensive lesson, and that is to confirm the price of something before you order it. There were a couple of things on the menu that sounded appealing, but then I noticed the little chalkboard. One of the items was faux filet for 11.90 euros. So I asked the waiter if he recommended the faux filet or the pavé de boeuf (listed in the menu). He said, "Faux filet." So I said, "Oui, faux filet." I ended up with a large piece of beef, a side of au gratin potatoes, and a pile of mushrooms (which you know I didn't eat). All in all, it was very tasty. We asked for "l'addition" and when it came, we all wondered how it could have come to 100 euros. Well, it's because my faux filet was actually the filet de boeuf and 33 euros. What about the little chalkboard, which clearly said "Aujourd'hui" ("Today"😉 at the top and showed 11.90 for the filet? What's the deal, monsieur? Turns out, I didn't understand that there's an unwritten part after "aujourd'hui." What's unwritten? "For lunch." So I was looking at a lunch chalkboard, not an all-day chalkboard. My French is not good enough to have put forth an argument, so I just accepted it as an (expensive) learning experience. I wouldn't be quite so unbothered by it had the food not been pretty darn good.

Tomorrow: Off to Bourges!

(P.S. Yesterday's entry has been updated with pictures.)

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Photos

Arc du Carrousel
You can just make out a misty Eiffel Tower in the distance.

Da Vinci Code moment
The inverted pyramid in the Carrousel du Louvre.