Cultured up

Trip Start May 13, 2009

Trip End Sep 07, 2009

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Where I stayed

Hotel De Beaune Paris

(Paris hotels)

Flag of France Paris, Île-de-France, France
Saturday, August 22, 2009

This morning I got up very early (8am) and headed to the Louvre. I started my day with a bit of baguette and jam as usual. I have to say though, we have been a tad disappointed with the baguettes here. The ones we can get nearby are quite tough inside, like ciabatta. There arent any other bakeries nearby though so we have persisted with them. Only today remains to continue our baguette search.

I expected the Louvre to be insanely busy, even at that time of the morning, but it wasnt. By 9:15 I was standing in front of the Mona Lisa without hoards of other people around me. After everyone saying they were surprised at how small the painting is, I was surprised at how big it was! But I guess in comparison to lost of the other paintings in that place, she is on the small side. Some of the paintings were too big to fit on the side of a bus (perhaps that is why they decided to hang them in a former palace...)

The actual building is amazing. Clearly it is a bit shit that the people who ordered all those fancy rooms built did so at a time when most of the population of France was dying of hunger. It is still amazing though. There are just so many things to see, I didnt bother trying to do it all. I just looked at the things that I liked. It was starting to get more busy when I left but compared to the line at the catacombs yesterday it was nothing.

Yesterday arvo we lined up for an hour for a 20 minute walk through the catacombs. They were a tad creepy; just rows and rows of skulls and thigh bones. They were all the people who died and were buried on the outskirts of Paris in the 16th and 17th century, when they needed to expand Paris they had to remove the graveyards and decided to move all the bodies to underground chambers that had been dug out under Paris to get stones to build the city. It was kinda like the church in Lima that Rach and I visited, but the bones there were in prettier patterns than here.

We had planned on getting a bicycle and riding around, but we discovered that our credit cards wouldnt work in the automated machines that give you bike-riding credit. BOO. Last night we went out to dinner at an Indian restaurant. I KNOW, eating INDIAN in FRANCE. But being vego here is not compatible with local cuisine. It was a great meal, although the waiter took my selection of a mild curry very seriously and it was not hot at all. We tried to get dessert afterwards but everyone had stopped serving food so we just had coffee. We have found all the waiters here to be super friendly and helpful. They dont seem to mind us speaking English at all. I keep accidentally using Spanish though instead of French when saying please and thankyou etc. Oops.

I was wearing my fancy dress I bought in Mexico and the shoes i bought in London; it was very pleasant to be dressed up for a change!

Mission today = find good baguettes!!! and cruise on the Seine in the evening. Last day and night in Paris. Tomorrow morning we fly to Morocco!

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