30th April 2000 Paris
Trip Start
Apr 27, 2000
1
4
81
Trip End
Aug 09, 2000
Paris,
France
Monday, February 17, 2003
Sunday morning, day 4, and we eventually decided that it is going to be impossible to see everything, and it's not worth walking ourselves into the ground every day. We decided to limit what we can do in a day, and decided to make today the Louvre and Notre-Dame.
First mistake, you need at least three days to see the Louvre. We arrived at 8.50 am to find ourselves at the end of a two hundred meter queue, but we were inside and making a bee line for the Mona Lisa to avoid being overwhelmed by a bus load of Teutonic marauders. We managed two minutes with her before they arrived and drove us from the room. Yes, she's a fine painting/work of art, but I liked some of his others better. Art is a mystery to me- "I don't know much about art, but I know.......!" Felt the same about the Venus de Milo, enjoyed it, but moved more by other sculptures. Saw a few Carravaggio's, and can't wait to see a lot more in Italy. Spent quite a while exploring the excavations of the original moat and castle and tower walls under the Louvre. Amazed that Ches thought this was one of the highlights of the morning-I thought I was the only one with an interest in archaeology/medieval history. Also spent some time looking at the Egyptian collection. It's probably this collection more than anything else that brings home the scale of the plundering that European powers engaged in, in the course of creating empires. I guess part of the motivation was a belief that they were to be the new centre of civilisation, and that they were entitled to bring home treasures to enrich the culture of their own people. The collections we had seen in Australia never prepared us for the scale of Egyptian artefacts they have here.
We had full day tickets, so at 1.00 pm we took off for another long walk to Notre-Dame. We decided to buy a baguette and sit in the square facing Notre-Dame. After a half-hour rest, we joined the queue. Fifteen minutes later, we discovered that it was the queue to climb the towers, which we didn't particularly want to do. We then joined the crush of people, not queuing, around the main entrance to the cathedral. Every so often, a few people would progress to the small gate, and then retreat through the crowd and depart. By this stage others began pushing through the crowd toward the gate, and there was considerable ill temper rising. Finally, one of these announced in English, that he was entitled to get through, because he was trying to get to mass. Why they never bothered to make a general announcement beats me. We decided we had had enough, and set off again to return to the Louvre.
We decided to buy a double scoop gelato before heading off. Two scoops the size of a 20-cent piece, $3.50, and surly service. In fact, most service is given grudgingly, which is amazing in a city that is so dependent upon tourism. Then again, members of the public, such as an elderly woman in the laundromat, with absolutely no English at all, couldn't do enough to explain how to use the machines. She and Ches communicated in single words of French for 10 minutes until we had everything under control. I guess the point I'm trying to make is that members of the public are friendly while the service providers, who earn their living from the tourist industry, are for the most part surly. We are even certain that on several occasions they knew what it was that we wanted, but wouldn't sell it to us unless we could specifically order it in French.
Anyway, moving right along. We headed back to the Louvre, and already having our tickets, avoided the queues and went up to see the Dutch and French paintings. As tiredness was again setting in rapidly, we did a quick trip to see the Vermeer's, and a couple of others before we returned to the "Rubins" room. We must have spent an hour here, moving from bench to bench the length of the room. From here we went through Napoleon 111's Apartments. One of the highlights for me-amazingly sumptuous. Chandeliers the size of our house (I'm probably exaggerating a little), and the dining room and main salon both vast and lavishly furnished. We have seen some impressive historic residences in the UK, but nothing comes near this. I guess I can expect to have my socks knocked off when we visit Versailles.
For the first time, we dressed up and headed across town to find La Gavroche, the restaurant recommended by Peter, Anne, Martin and Mez. Used two metro lines and eventually wandered through numerous small back streets to find it was closed (Sunday night not a lot open). We backtracked to a bistro we had passed earlier, Les Noces Jeanette. We later found it listed in our "Eyewitness Guide to Paris"-a top end two star restaurant. We had to wait 15 minutes for a table to become available, and people leaving said it was excellent and a favourite of the locals. Wonderful decor of old French movie posters-it take its name from a scene from a play performed at the nearby comedy theatre.
The owner wasn't French, so happy to provide an English menu, which made life easier. Ches had Scallop Terrine, Pot-roasted Pork and Green Lentils, and Creme Caramel, and I had Pork Sausages (thin slices of a range of sausages), and Fillet of Duck with Pears and Cherries, and Creme Caramel. We had a bottle of house red, preceded by an aperitif, which we enjoyed but couldn't identify (it was on the house-a splash of something red topped up with sparkling white). An enjoyable meal in a relaxed and increasingly boisterous setting as a table of American women worked their way into the wine, and produced their toy monkeys for photographs. But that's another story!
