Paris in the sun and the rain...
Trip Start
Sep 15, 2008
1
10
14
Trip End
Oct 06, 2008
Paris,
France
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Today we escaped the very heart of the city--meaning Ile St. Louis and environs, where we are staying, and went to the Jardin de Plantes and the natural history museum on the Left Bank. It was so refreshing to get out of the preciousness (dare I say it?) of the very center of the city, where we are now running into tourist couples we've met at other venues, getting to know their travails. That part of Paris feels, at times, like a big playground for tourists, however beautiful and interesting it all is. The natural history museum is in a "real" neighborhood, not a lot of wandering tourists (us, though, of course!), and I had more of a sense of Paris as a big diverse multicultural soup.
Yesterday we--and every other tourist in Paris--went to the Musee d'Orsay because it is the only museum open on Tuesday. It was like a timed-ticket blockbuster show in the US as we tried to navigate around the 5th floor Impressionists. Maddeningly crowded. People are allowed to take photos, and flashes were going off everywhere. We paid for the audio tour, which kept us focussed and informed, really a good idea under the circumstances. To give you an idea how crowded it is, we waited in the museum cafeteria line for 30 minutes. I had to COMMAND Jerry to go zen. And then there was no place to sit down, so we ate standing up.
Just down the street from this internet shop is the only fabric store of interest that I managed to find on the internet while I was at home, Le Rouvray, so I'm off to that next. Had a go at the the Musee d'Orsay gift shop, postcards by the handfuls for my trip book, dish towels, and also a woven pillow cover. Oh, well. We check in with CNN when we can tame the TV at our flat, and the financial situation in the US looks very bad, but as Laura says, might as well enjoy a trip with the money instead of losing it.
Not sure what we're up to the rest of the trip--the weather will determine it. Yesterday, in sprinkles, Jerry and I made a sentimental journey to the Tuileries Garden, where Madeleine and our mother and I spent hours in 1959, waiting while our dad went through museums. I had Jerry take a picture of me in a green park chair in front of the pond where M. and I used to push toy boats around with a long pole. And another of me leaning over the wall looking at the Place de la Concorde--twin (almost, if M. had been there) of one taken in 1959. And I saw a man pushing a cart of toy boats--they still rent them there!
The Louvre is so damned big I may skip it. Or just inspect the pyramid. Have a museum pass, so might as well. Can pass on the Mona Lisa, I think. Going more for the flavor of Paris now than the sights...
Comments
Don't pass on the Mona Lisa
Enjoying the description of Paris. Was there 1977 with a school trip (two weeks, mostly in the south of France, but two or three days in Paris). What I remember the most was the Eiffel Tower which amazed and stunned me. I couldn't have explained why then, but I see now that what was so astonishing was the de-fictionalization of foreign lands. It was REAL. We spent half an hour or something at the Louvre in the pre-Pyramid days; saw Winged Victory, Venus de Milo, and Mona Lisa. Latter was most astonishing. Similar reason--it's real, but it's also not at all what you expect it to be. I recommend a drive by look at that if nothing else. And do tell what the Pyramid is like! I spent most of my time there in what was the Jeu de Pomme, looking, entranced, at a series of Monet's Cathedral de Rouen. Don't think the Jeu de Pomme even exists any more! Enjoy and keep 'em coming!
Don't pass on the Mona Lisa
Enjoying the description of Paris. Was there 1977 with a school trip (two weeks, mostly in the south of France, but two or three days in Paris). What I remember the most was the Eiffel Tower which amazed and stunned me. I couldn't have explained why then, but I see now that what was so astonishing was the de-fictionalization of foreign lands. It was REAL. We spent half an hour or something at the Louvre in the pre-Pyramid days; saw Winged Victory, Venus de Milo, and Mona Lisa. Latter was most astonishing. Similar reason--it's real, but it's also not at all what you expect it to be. I recommend a drive by look at that if nothing else. And do tell what the Pyramid is like! I spent most of my time there in what was the Jeu de Pomme, looking, entranced, at a series of Monet's Cathedral de Rouen. Don't think the Jeu de Pomme even exists any more! Enjoy and keep 'em coming!