I still have Monday and Tuesday's activities to report, but I'm going to write about today's outings while they're still all over me; it has been a totally great, super exhausting, photo-filled, toe-torturing day.
Michelle and I left the kids at the apartment and went to lunch by ourselves at a nearby cafe. It was raining, but we still ate at the small table under the menu by the doorway.
Michelle ordered the salmon and I ordered rigatoni (apparently I'm carb loading) and weren't too happy with our food. It was just okay.
We decided to order hot chocolate after our lunch because everyone else is always sipping their cafe au laits and I wanted to sip something from a tiny cup too. It's a good thing we did, because upon seeing me pull out my camera again (I did each time part of our meal arrived) the woman at the table next to us asked me if I was a food reporter. Michelle and I explained about taking pictures for our blogs, and we ended up spending the next hour talking with this nice couple.
They're from St. Louis, Missouri (though he's French) and were totally interesting and fun to talk with. It was such a treat for Michelle and I, and made our sub-par lunch a highlight! (So Bernard and Patty, if you remembered my blog address and are reading this, thank you for the great conversation!)
We spent such a long time at lunch that we had plenty of room for pastries on the way home!
We returned to the apartment to find this scene, Eva demonstrating her enviable amount of energy (she is always hopping, rolling, turning and generally moving all over while singing, talking or yelling) and Max doing schoolwork on the computer. Lucas was still in his pajamas on the couch playing the Wii.
Michelle keeps asking me what I want to do, but it's hard to decide on something everyone wants to do. Today we showed the boys this list (made by Michelle) and asked them to choose something.
Upon getting dressed, Eva declared "Underwear covers my bum, why?"
We headed off to The Louvre by bus and got off at The Eiffel Tower stop to change buses. It was most serendipitous.
We were in the rain next to The Eiffel Tower, out on an adventure, I was delighted.
How's this for a puddle photo?
One of the great features on Michelle's iTouch is that she has access to all the bus and Metro routes here in Paris...that doesn't mean we always know where to find the bus we need, but it's still pretty handy.
We ended up walking quite a way while trying to find a certain bus stop. I was in heaven! It was raining, but not hard enough to make me put my camera away.
Sweet fancy Moses, I was right there.
This is dreamy right?
We walked for a long time (Eva eventually got in her stroller), but it was wonderful (though Lucas was mad that we hadn't just taken the Metro). There was so much to see and we weren't in any hurry, we couldn't have planned a better accident than this!
We eventually found a bus stop that worked for us (notice how far we ended up from The Eiffel Tower?) and then were treated to a the long way around to get to The Louvre. We all had seats on the bus, so it was just another fun part of the day.
Can you believe it's only 9 Euros to get into The Louvre? We paid more than that for baguettes and pastries yesterday.
These are all the different languages the museum guide booklets come in! Ours was in English, but we still could have used a little help with it, maybe they should come with GPS navigation so you'd always be able to figure out where you are; it's probably just a matter of time...or maybe I'm the only one without that technology now.
The view from under the giant pyramid is pretty cool, as is taking pictures of it.
We headed to the Northern European paintings (which were closed on the day we visited 2 years ago) and were amazed by this room of 24 HUGE paintings by Rubens. Apparently the Medici family needed some art for one of their rooms!
This is one of my favorite photos from the day,
Max sitting in the window.
Most of the time I feel like the people in old paintings really look like they're from a different time period, even their faces look different not just their clothes, but this guy looks like he could work at 7-11...am I right or what, just picture him saying "thanks dude".
Can you believe this view from one of the gallery windows? It looks like a postcard! I was completely smitten. You can see the raised garden area (it's the squared trees after he hedges) Michelle and I sat in while Flanarizing last Friday.
Just some Rembrandts!
We took a self-portrait (Eva was in the stroller below) before they left so they could get Max to seminary. I ended up staying another 3 hours by myself!
One good eye?!
I've seen this painting in books, but it gave me pause in real life for sure. I think it should be called "What the?"
I ended up going through some rooms with a private collection, so it had a great mix of paintings from famous artists. I really can't imagine what it would be like to own art like this, it doesn't seem like something any
one person should own does it?
While trying to find the Italian painting wing (I swear I DO know how to read a map, I'm just Louvre-map impaired), I did a quick walk through the Napolean apartment. Oh my goodness! Hello ornate! I kept thinking of Missy Claudia and how much she would love living in Napolean's world. Look at this dining room! This doesn't look like a flip-flop kind of lifestyle, so I'm out.
I walked forever to find my way out of where I was and where I wanted to go and ended up a sweaty mess upon finally finding the Italian painters. Carrying my heavy bag, my heavy camera and a my coat didn't help matters at all. I would have liked to shower and start over before continuing on, strangely they don't have a locker room for guests at The Louvre.
I enjoyed being greeted by Botticelli!
I did a drive by past The Mona Lisa and passed 3 other da Vinci paintings on the way to see it, but hardly anybody was looking at those. (Poor guy with the bald spot.)
I sat down on a bench to look at Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People, only to have a group of people stand right in front of me! This picture doesn't capture the rudeness of it properly, but they could have scooted about a foot to the left and would have given me a clear view of the painting without blocking anyone else, but noooooo they stood and made plans right in front of me, hello...I'm right here and there's a whole lot of me, too much not to see. I felt invisible just like Michelle D. described in her funny
post.
I got totally lost trying to find my way out of the Louvre (remember 2 years ago when Michelle and I got lost?) again. It's so frustrating to see exit signs all over the place, only to have them be emergency exits only. I could see outside and wanted to go to there (30 Rock reference) but was trapped in a room full of statues of naked people. I saw way too much naked today! I did stumble upon the Venus de Milo while looking for exit...if you've seen her then you know how lost I was!
I eventually found my way out of the exhibits to the real exit and headed for the Metro station that's in the building only to find it locked! (If I hadn't been so shocked I would have had my wits about me enough to take a photo of the gated doors.) There were many other people confused by this discovery as well.
I ended up going outside and trying to figure out the bus route nearest me, but then decided to find a Metro station instead. This meant I was no longer following the route Michelle had given me, but I did very well and said a prayer of thanks as soon as I sat down on the second Metro (the first one was so crowded that I was just trying not to fall into someone's lap).
This is my very sweaty, red-faced (yikes) self-portrait while waiting for the Metro. I was relieved that it wasn't crowded when it arrived, because I was able to sit down for the 14 stops before it reached my stop.
Upon coming up the escalator (woohoo no more stairs) from the Metro (which is always so joyous because the fresh air and breeze feel like gifts) I walked up the street and got a night view of the apartment complete with Michelle at the computer next to the window.
I was physically exhausted from our long day out, but I was totally energized by it too. I hadn't eaten anything since our lunch 8 hours earlier, so I put on my flip-flops (my other shoes had worn out their welcome) and went around the corner to the Grec (not Greg, which is what I typed) shop and managed to order a Grec sandwich with white sauce (blanche) from a very nice man who worked there. I haven't had any rude encounters with the French, they've been nothing but nice to me.
I know this photo isn't clear, but I think it's beautiful anyway; this was the view on my return from the Grec shop. I felt lucky to be seeing such a gorgeous sight.
Okay, this post has taken me 2.5 hours to write (it's 2:22am here), I hope you appreciate it and made it through.
**When was the last time you sipped from a tiny cup?
Do you love serendipitous experiences?
Would you have liked walking in the rain?
Do you prefer the bus or Metro?
Have you seen The Mona Lisa?
Any other thoughts??**
Comment Window Tidbit: It's amazing to consider that 2 weeks ago I was in the throws of extreme back pain, yet today I walked for miles, climbed endless stairs and was on the go for about 11 hours!
