Anyway, on to the better things...
Day 1 (Friday):
Natalie was working when I got in on Friday morning so I went and dropped of my backpack and headed down to the Louvre Museum to explore the masterpieces since on my first trip I didn't have the patience to spend a day waiting in line and wandering around the maze inside.
There were lots of awesome statues, roman and french. Funny because after going to a few of the museums in Italy it was interesting to read about the influence they had on the French sculptures. I can tell that my favorite ancient 'art' is all the sculptures.
I loved the whole section on Egypt and Iran, think that was fun just because I haven't been to any museums that have that kind of stuff yet. Made me want to go see it it first hand (well to Egypt at least), one day that will happen. When I can be convinced that it will be safe. :-)
The rest of the museum I really wasn't all that impressed with, the extravagance that surrounds the rich is still just kind of annoying. Why should some people have so much, and others have so little.
All the paintings again were ok, but I just am not that interested in all the religious scenes. The Mona Lisa of course was pass through, but as expected it failed to impress in person. Small and extremely protected, by guards and a cover. I just can't imagine what all the fuss is about, more fun to look at it in books where you are not surrounded by 500 Asians snapping photos.
Day 2 (Saturday):
Nat and I got up and headed down to explore the art district and to see Sacre Coeur, and then out to the Paris Catacombs. Somehow I didn't feel the need to take any pictures of us, except for this one creepy one where I look like I just got my eyes taped open... that's what I get for taking pictures in the morning ;-)
Yay puking statues! It didn't rain hard enough to actually have the runoff come out their mouths but I still love the idea :-)
Fun carvings down in the Catacombs
Millions and millions of bones lie down in the catacomb. Which have been arranged with the sculls in lines surrounded by the large leg bones. The rest of the bones from the bodies are piled behind these arrangements. Not sure how i would feel to be put on display like this after my passing, eerie to wander through it all.
Next we went to the Arc de Triomphe, we were going to hike it, but it seemed really expensive to do just that, and the line was long.. So instead we wandered around it for a bit before going for a stroll. My judge of distance is not really very good when it comes to monuments I guess. I knew Nat's feet were killing her in her boots.. but did that stop me from thinking we should walk all the way to the Eiffel Tower? Nope... I really don't think sometimes. I felt so bad when we finally got there and even my feet hurt in my sneakers, I can't even imagine how bad hers must have hurt. We took a little rest to have a snack and a glass of wine and watch the Eiffel Tower light up :-)
That was very pretty, we were considering torturing our feet a bit longer and going up to see the city lit up from the top (we have both been up before, but not at night), but the line was long, and the wind was blowing pretty hard so it seemed like we might just freeze to death while torturing our feet... So for once I was smart and we headed back to the hotel for a little rest before going out to dinner.
Dinner was amazing! We ate at this little place called Draco near Nat's apartment, we sat at the bar ate delicious food and drank some yummy wine. Quite a nice end to a very busy day!
Day 3 (Sunday):
Museum day #2, we decided to go to the Musee de Orsay to see some of the impressionism paintings. Was really interesting to see the actual painting style up close. The spot paining instead of the solid brush paintings. Very textured canvas'. Was fun to look at them all, neither Natalie nor I really care about the portrait paintings so we cruised through those areas, but there were some others that were very beautiful.
The building that the museum is in is very neat too, is an old converted train station which is very fancy now :-)
3 1/2 hours later though we were hitting burn out stage and were just walking quickly through the remainder of the exhibits, good thing we started with van Gogh & Monet when we could appreciate it more. :-)
As Natalie had to work in the morning, and was fighting off a cold, we took it easy Sunday night and went to an early dinner at one of the oldest restaurants in Paris. Natalie made me eat snails... hmm, were interesting. As in China, I figured I should try one thing that I think is very strange, but is very french. They kind of reminded me of butter clams. Not particularly good, more of a way to get the garlic butter into your mouth. Kind of like sauteed little mushrooms, but when you think that they are snails it is very difficult to swallow. :-p
Day 3 (Monday):
Natalie had to get up early to head to work, poor girl, I rested for another half hour or so and then leisurely got ready and packed up. I took the subway over to the Notre Dame area and got a croissant, a coffee, and some mango slices and sat watching the tourists start to come out of the woodwork for the day. I like doing things like that, just sitting and watching people. :-)
Notre Dame is definitely my favorite thing in Paris, and makes the visit worth while (well ok, and the Eiffel Tower of course, just as impressive in person). I spent a while hanging out inside and out in the morning.... went to the Pompidou Museum late morning, and then came back in the afternoon to hike to the top of Notre Dame (soooo worth it!)
Now growing up with my father, I think that I have a good appreciation for art... However, maybe it was the 7 hours I had already spent at museums looking at art that I actually liked (well some of it at least), but I had an extremely hard time appreciating the art at the Pompidou. I decided I have no patience for modern art. What the hell is that? I mean, I feel like i am looking at an armature's work, and it makes me feel kind of nauseated that each piece is worth insane amounts of money. I guess I feel like art should look like it took time, and effort to create. Modern art does not look like that to me, it looks like a 5 year old painted a paint by numbers piece. Picasso, sorry, I've got no love for you.
Only painter that I found I kept appreciating was Kandinski. His art has structure and even though it was abstract and different it still looked nice and made me think it would have taken time. Two of the ones I liked :-)
Now with the distaste I had for the modern art, the contemporary art was even stranger. I think honestly the only one I really liked was like a muddy melty bike painting I found. Which I really liked, but the rest was just so out there, or beyond my comprehension on why we need to see 100 paintings of squares in squares painted different colors, or in slightly different positions withing one another. I was very much over it by the time I left, not that I didn't go through everything to make sure I left no stone unturned. :-p
It was so great to have you come visit! Made the trip so much better!! And I only have 1 creepy pic of us too in front of Notre Dame at night... we need Jodie :)
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