Paris, France (Part 1)

Finally, Paris.

Paris was: walking and more walking down wide sidewalks and along riverside paths, wandering through huge parks filled with trees in straight lines and bronze statues, waiting in huge line-ups for museums that were all well worth the time, drooling over shop windows filled with pastries and cheeses and meat and bread, drinking too many coffees in ancient cafes where so many famous authors once sat, navigating through dozens of metro stations and long tunnels under the street, marveling over ancient churches and monuments and palaces, gaping in awe at actually being there, finally, after wanting it for so long.

Thanks to our early morning flight from Berlin, it was still quite early after we had dropped our things at the hotel, had coffee at a cafe, and then made our way to the center. This was fortunate because our itinerary for our two days there was absolutely packed and I had so many things I wanted to see on the first day. Coming out of the metro station, we had our first real view of the most famous Paris sight.

We started by walking through the Jardin des Tuileries towards the Louvre.

We anticipated the Louvre would be our longest line-up of the two days (ha! we had no idea) , but would never have guessed how long the line-ups for all of the attractions would be. We decided to spring for the Paris Museum Pass, which would be a bit more expensive but would hopefully help us skip some lines. We had to wait for about an hour to get into the shop in the bottom of the Louvre to buy the pass. Did you know there is a McDonald’s in the bottom of the Louvre? It’s true, and – yes – we ate there.

Thanks to movies, the modern additions to the Louvre building are almost as iconic now as the museum’s exhibits. I hear Parisians have a love-hate relationship with the structure, but I do love the contract of the glass pyramid with the ornate palace surroundings.

From inside the main entrance:

The second, inverted pyramid in the halls beneath the Louvre:

Lonely Planet says that it would take 9 months just to glance at every single work of art in the museum. It was good we had read this, or we might have felt compelled to examine things much more closely – an impossible feat. Instead, we focused on the main sights and walked quickly through most of the other areas. Of course, the most famous inhabitant of the Louve is the Mona Lisa. Everywhere in the museum, signs direct you to her. When you get to the room where she is displayed, this is what it’s like:

Eventually you can fight your way to the front and get a better view:

Despite all the hype, it doesn’t disappoint. It is an enchanting and mysterious painting.

Even without the thousands of priceless works of art, the Louvre itself is a beautiful place. It’s long hallways, arched ceilings, and endless plaster work and guilded decorations make it a truly impressive building.

Although we did look at many great paintings, most of them aren’t captured well in a snapshot. And we did spend more time looking at the sculptures, since the collection there is particularly impressive including Greek, Roman, Italian and other masterpieces.

Winged victory:

Venus de Milo:

Athena:

Saint Christopher:

We were also interested in the museum’s collection of Egyptian art and artifacts.

One valuable lesson for any trip to the Louvre: remember there is only one entrance/exit, so you will not be able to find another one by walking all the way down to the far, far end of the building. If your husband tells you that you must turn around to get out, you should listen to him so you don’t spend 40 more minutes walking around and around the same Egyptian exhibit, looking for Exit signs.

I’m saving most of the “favorite things” for tomorrow’s post, so I’ll skip ahead to show some photos from our visit to the Arc de Triomphe.