Lost and Found

I got lost in the Marais (3/4th arrondissement). The plan for the day was to go to the Conciergerie (the museum where Marie Antoinette was imprisoned before they cut off her head), Museum of Modern Art in the Pompidou Center, Picasso Museum and the Carnavalet Museum and if I had time I really wanted to to go the Louvre at night. Well, the day started of splendidly. I once again took the Metro to St. Michel (it's the name of the bridge near the metro stop that allows you to get to the Ile de la Cite where Notre Dame is located) and had no problem with the doors this time. As usual I was way early for the musuem and I wandered around a bit trying to find breakfast. Finally I decided to just enter a cafe that over looked the Plaza du Chatelet which was on the otherside of the island. Now mind you these island's are not that big. The cafe au lait with the croissant was wonderful, their coffee here is made so nice and strong and the croissant was light and flakey just like a well made croissant should be. I found the oldest clock in Paris which per the source I read beforehand has been marking time since 1370, sorry the picture is a bit blurry that rush of caffeine was starting to take effect on me. The clock is on the same building as the Concieregerie. Marie Antoinette's cell was small and a bit damp but it was intresting nonetheless. The same building also imprisoned the great French Revolutionary leader- Robespierre, he fortunately got to keep his head! Inside the building it was rather dark and one of the main halls they were doing some renovations so all I got were pictures of the small courtyard where they led Marie Antoinette to her last ride in Paris.

Then it was off to the Pompidou Center to see some Modern Art. Now my pass read that the museum opened at 10am but when I got there the lady at the door said eleven. Fortunately there is Stravinsky fountain and I remember this from a scene in "Sabrina" (the newer version with Harrison Ford and Julia Ormond). It was right after Sabrina got sent to Paris to work for Vogue and they had one of the fasion photo shoot in front of the fountains. Pretty cool to see it up close and in person, jsut like the Mouth of Truth in Rome. Now the Pompidou Center is a fascinatin piece of architecture because it looks like a building inside out with all the metal and pipes showing instead of being hidden. I liked riding up the escalator it was pretty cool. Inside the museum I saw some rather intresting things and the question "what is art?" came to mind. They had videos, pictures, statues and all these funky things preserved in the musuem. Take a tiles for instance, now this was one of my favorite pieces inside there because to me it looks like the inside of a rubiks cube without the color so the red roses stood out against the white tiles. Then they had a recording of this guy who would make "music" from ordinary things like milk bottles, wind chimes, boxes, sticks etc. I got to sit on a piece of art while listening to that, they had these Persian looking rugs that were placed on couches and it was "art". So again I ask you what exactly is art? You can't just say it involves colors (because some of the best art are black and white), or that it involves sound, or that it is something made out of a particular element. Maybe I am asking the wrong question, what about "who decides what is art?" but then I digress. It was time for lunch because after all this thinking not to mention this rather intresting indpendent film I saw in the video room. Some Russian guy made it and it involved bricks, three sets of couple who kept doing the pose of the Vitruvian Man and a story about how the birds pushed the sky up high. Yeah I know doesn't make sense and I was lost most of the time but it was fascinating!

Lunch was when I got lost. I read my map before I left the Museum of Modern Art and thought I knew my way to get to Picasso's Musuem. I figured for lunch I would just have a crepe nearby the musuem and a Perrier. Hahaha the best laid plans do go awry. I kept walking and walking hoping to find the streets that I needed but I didn't want to pull out my map in the open because that would just scream "tourist!!!" and being a solo female that is not a good thing. I found a park and a large building where there was some kind of leather market inside but not the street I wanted. So I decided to let my stomach guide me and it found this nice cafe out of the way where the waiter was what I could only imagine a classic French waiter should be (he was older, French and could flirt without saying a word. hahaha). Lunch was asparagus quiche with smoked salmon on top, Perrier and for dessert un cafe (or if we were in Italy and expresso). Isn't it beautiful? That little cup held more power for the rest of my day but I didn't know I would need all that caffeine rush then. And who knew that asparagus could taste so delicous with salmon, there was just a nice mixture of flavors with the saltiness of the salmon complementing the lightness of the eggs and asparagus.

While I had my lunch I pulled out my map and found that I had gone several blocks north of where I needed to be. Man I've walked around so much that even though my legs may scream in pain I've gotten used to ignoring it and just keep putting one foot in front of the other. The Picasso Musuem is located inside a nice mansion but when you walk around inside you find stairways that don't match with the time peroid in which the house was built. I felt like I was moving inside PIcasso's painting. There was sloping ceilings, steps located covertly around that just made you want to walk down them to find out what is around the corner and rooms that had curved walls. Marvelous the way they did that museum! After Picasso it was off to the Carnavalet Museum where I got lost again. This musuem is housed in a large place, there was art work everywhere from different centuries with different King Louis and had the furniture from each decade or century. Man was my head spinning! I needed out and quick! I decided to walk back to the Louvre and on the way I saw a familiar green sign. When people say Starbuck is everywhere, they really weren't lying I passed two of them between the Marais and Louvre. Now I'm going to be a groumand snob and not drink any Starbucks while I am here in Paris, I mean the French have their own way of making coffee delicious why not go with the locals. Also I am going to stick to my promis and not visit McDonalds either...I might visit the French version of fast food like I did in the Philippines with Jolliebee but I shall not step a foot inside the golden arches while I am here.

Since I was still early arriving at the Louvre (I wanted to go in when they had the lights on in the Pyramids) I figure I would try a French specialty-crepes. There is a vendor on Rue Rivioli that I found and got the Jambon crepe along with a Perrier which made dinner for the day. Then I found a bench between the Louvre and Jardin des Tuileries where I sat and people watched while eating my dinner. The cold wind got to me though and I entered the Louvre before the lights went on in the pyramid. This time I went into the Richelieu wing and saw the Asie exhibits along with the Scandanavian paintings. This wing was not as croweded as the Denon wing where the "top 3: Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo and Winged victory" are located and this wing even had a indoor statue garden. Seeing some of the archelogical finds from ancient Mesopotamia up close was almost as good as being in Egypt, almost but not quite. They had various hieroglyphics exhibited where you can get up close and really see the intricate design made by people thousands of years before you even came into existence. Man this is one of the reasons why I travel...to not just read something in a book and belive that it actually exist but to actually get up close and personal enough to see it. When I finally left the Louvre it was dark and I couldn't find a taxi anywhere, they were not near the designated taxi stands so I walked from the Louvre all the way back to my hotel. I wish I could tell you how many steps that was but my pedometer that I took doesn't work and so I ditched it, but my aching feet will tell you it was more than enough and they deserve a pedicure when I get back home. LOL