Day 10: Louvring every minute of it!

Surprise, surprise…..another early morning! We pre-purchased tickets to the Louvre and wanted to make sure we got in line early in order to see the Mona Lisa. Even the pre-purchased ticket line wasn’t short!  Sherri admonished us before the doors opened: “no taking pictures along the way, no getting distracted, we’re heading straight to the Mona Lisa before the crowds get there!”  The rest of us nervously nodded our heads; the mood of the day hanging in the balance. However, we’re really glad we did that, as our near sprint up the stairs to the room with the Mona Lisa in it meant we got quite a bit of time to view the most famous painting in the world. Just don’t tell Sherri that I said she was right….I’ll never hear the end of it!

After seeing the Mona Lisa, we Romed (whoops, wrong city) around the Louvre looking at all of the fantastic art. We saw Venus de Milo, Winged Victory of Samothrace, and Liberty Leading the People, to name just a few. The Winged Victory was interesting to me, as it was sculpted to be viewed from a specific angle. As such, it’s not nearly as detailed or finished on the other side. I guess all of us want to be viewed from our good side, but like the Winged Victory, it’s possible for folks to see the bad side of us, so we should strive to make that at least halfway presentable. (end of philosophy musings)  The museum is gorgeous; it’s really hard to believe that some of these pieces were created hundreds of years ago and made their way into these museums. We were in awe of the quality of art, the quantity of art (over 300,000 pieces in this museum alone!), and the history behind all of these pieces.

Liberty Leading the People

Winged Victory (the good side)

Winged Victory (the other side)

Venus de Milo

After an inspiring walk through the Louvre, we headed to lunch. I’m responsible for choosing all of the eating venues (no pressure), so I was a bit nervous that the place I chose had no people in it at 12:30pm! However, I tend to choose places that are off the beaten path so that we can hopefully find some hidden gems and at the same time avoid the other tourists. This place turned out to be really good! Yummy pizza, great pasta, and the best olive oil we’ve ever had. It was super spicy!

N'oubliez pas que vous devez boire de la bière avec votre déjeuner!

After lunch we headed to Musee d’Orsay. This is a really cool museum because it’s housed in what was once a railway station. However, the trains got too long for the short station so it became unusable as a station and became a mail center in WWII. It wasn’t turned into the museum it is today until 1986! Looking at the building now, it’s hard to believe they used to make railway stations so beautiful ‘back in the day’.  In fact, all of these buildings we’ve been experiencing….they really took a lot of time and effort and put a lot of thought into the design of them. It’s truly inspiring and amazing to see. The Musee d’Orsay is also awesome because it’s home to many originals by Monet, Renoir, Cezanne, and Van Gogh (who, I believe was a story teller, and would talk your ear off or something like that…I wasn’t really paying attention in art class). These paintings by the masters were truly a gift to see in person….the talent (backed by a lot of hard work – Monet had something like 500 works to his name!) is amazing.

"Lend me your ear..."

Once we finished with the museum, we headed out in search of a tasty treat. I found a place that was tucked back away from the main road. It is called Pierre Hermé. Turns out there are several of these and they are pretty popular. We got the most amazing macarons and chocolate desert. The girls had an a very tasty tea with rose petals wrapped around the straws. We sat on the patio with the afternoon sun casting late shadows and the smells of fresh flowers and coffee filling our noses. It was a very relaxing and fun dessert. We tried many of the macarons: caramel, dark chocolate, Madagascar vanilla, jasmine, lemon and raspberry, passion fruit and peach, and chocolate with passion fruit. Really yummy, and walking distance from the museum!

We’ve been here for two and a half days and Sherri is already talking about getting an apartment here. I told her she’d be terribly lonely. That was, apparently, the wrong thing to say. I was supposed to say, “that would be so romantic!”  I have written this down in my “Proper Responses Book” and will know better next time.

We took the Metro back (we’re getting good at riding the Metro!) to our neighborhood, grabbed some groceries on the way back to our apartment, and turned in for the night. Another day of 20k+ steps!