This morning when I was headed toward the metro I saw a wonderous sight. The Eiffel Tower compassed by clouds so you couldn't see the top. There were plenty of people jogging around the Parc du Champ de Mars. Could you blame them? I mean if I had this thing around the corner and could see it change with the seasons I would be tempted to get up everyday and jog around. The metro was not bad, I've been intimidated about taking the metro before I came here. If you were a suburban girl who uses a car to get around everywhere, wouldn't you be a bit afraid of sitting in something that goes underground? Especially with all those bombings and such that have been on the news lately, they all helped to fuel fire to my fears. Fortunately I survived and a nice lady even pushed the door button when, of course, the door nearest to me wouldn't open at the stop I needed to get out. Can you say tourist? I felt like I had that stamped in bold letters on my forehead, but that moment passed and I followed the people out of the underground. My first stop was the Musee d'Orsay where plenty of Impressionist works of art are displayed. The building itself used to be an old train museum so there was plenty of space. I had downloaded Rick Steves' Orsay Museum audio guide which helped to give me direction so I wasn't wandering aimlessly around just looking without purpose. There is this tower looking place on the otherside of the large clock inside the building where you can climb up to get a good view of the whole thing, but my hands were shaky and I really couldn't get a clear picture. (I think it was that cafe au lait I had before going in the museum, three lumps of sugar with coffee could do that to a system I suppose =) There was this one room at the 5th floor where you can look out through the backwards clock (this one you could see correctly outside the museum) and get a glimpse of Sacre Coeur. Now the thing I like about the Orsay is that it mostly focuses on the Impressionist and I really like the way they use light in their works. I'm sure you've all heard of some of these Impressionist i.e. Claude Monet, Van Goh, Renoir and Degas but today I found a few more less well known artist who's works I like. They are Henri Edmond Corss, George Lemmen, William Degouve de Nuncques and Austide Maillol. Now most of these men that I have just mentioned do pointillism, but if you see the picutres most of you science people will say "hey that looks like stippling" and it does in some sorts. Now I tried to take a picture of what one of these paintings look like but it won't do justice to the real thing. I have postcards of it but I'll have to scan it in later when I get home.
One of the surprises in the Orsay was this very ornate ballroom they had. You don't expect a ballroom in an old train station but there it was. Various sculptures were placed around the room, the ceilings were painted and as you can see gold is everywhere in the room. Here is a one-arm picture of me in the room, there was no one around who I could ask to take my picture.
After the Orsay, I walked along the Pont Des Arts which has a great view of the tip (where there is a park) of Ile de la Cite. Sometimes they have exhibitions of artwork on this bridge hence the name but today it was just a nice place to rest and get a view of some of the bridges of Paris.
The Louvre was nearby and I figured it's time to pay hommage to another famous Parisan-La Jaconde or as we know her the Mona Lisa. Now I was a good, rule obeying person and so I didn't try to sneak in a picture of her like some other tourist who then had the guard go up to them and try to take their camera away. Honestly! Can't people learn how to obey instructions? LOL Now I'm sure after watching the Da Vinci Code most of you have heard that her eyes follow you. So I tried it and it's true! The way Da Vinci painted her does give you that feeling. Also I was good and didn't ignore the other works of art in the room, why just across from La Jaconde was a very large painting by Paolo Veronese about the first miracle Jesus performed. Again I used Rick Steves Louvre Tour on my iPod and I must say it was very helpful and cheap. It's free and you don't have to pay the 5euro that is the average cost for most audioguides. After my tour on the iPod was done I figured I'd use up more time before dinner to wander around the Egyptian wing. I only got a picture of a replica of the Sphinx before my thirst overwhelmed me and the crowds of school age children stiffled me so I had to get out for some fresh air. Body odor is not a pleasant smell anywhere!
Now for those of you who are curious I had lunch at a cafe in the Deono wing of the Louvre. By the time I left the Orsay that croissant and cafe au lait I had for breakfast was long gone and my stomach was protesting. What did I have? Beats me it was the dish of the day and the waiteress told me twice in French (I may have been joking about my brown skin camouflaging me being an American but it's true! People just keep sprouting off to me in French even though I tell them I don't speak French that well but English they just continue on in French.). I had ordered a classic meal which came with an entree, main dish and desert. The entree was a croque monsieur, which is a nice French way of saying a toasted ham and cheese sandwhich, now I did as the locals and ate that thing with my fork and knife. Go ahead and laugh now, I know most of you want to! I was so hungry I forgot to take a picture of it, that tells you just how hungry I was. I did take a picture of my plat du jour, which was a roasted pork and al dente pasta. It was delicious! There was some kind of berry gravey on top of the meat and so the sweetness it was a nice surprise. Now I guess I didn't communicate very well in French to the waitress so when I was trying to order a Perrier, I ended up getting the check! She was nice enough to not include the desert that I was supposed to get to the bill, so I wasn't upset about it.
After all the crowds at the Louvre I decided to go to an underappreciated museum that was covered by my pass, the Musee de la Monie. Yup a money museum, before the whole European Union thing I used to collect coins from different countries that my dad or other relatives would visit. I must say it was nice having a museum all to one's self. This musuem is still a nice side trip and it's not that far from the Ponts des Arts. They show you how money was made years ago and then there is also an exhibition of the current currency around the world today. I can definitely say that this is a hidden gem among all of the museums in Paris.
Then since the Ile de la Cite was nearby I figured why not head to another famous Paris landmark...Notre Dame. Wow! Inside they had some kind of choir practice going on and I took a seat to listen. Words cannot describe the feeling of being in that church and hearing these wonderful voices singing. I got more goosebumps here than I did when I saw the Mona Lisa earlier. It was wonderful, like Hallelujah Chorus wonderful but it was in French and the conductor kept stopping them to correct them. But when they sang a whole song through...amazing! Anyways by that time my feet were screaming "I want a pedicure! Stop walking! Put us up so blood can circulate!" so I headed back to my hotel. I left Ile de la Cite and tried to find a taxi stand, along the way I ran into an Igloo. Yup there is an Igloo in Paris, I guess this is one of the places where they have an open ice rink but it wasn't open yet. Bob I just want you to know that I am keeping my promise about not taking the metro at night but tonight I was sooo tempted to break it because it took me almost 30min before I could flagg down an available tax, they were not hanging around the stands marked "taxi" for some reason!
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