The Museums
Trip Start
Apr 30, 2004
1
11
34
Trip End
May 09, 2004
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Paris,
France
Monday, May 3, 2004
Our alarms are set at 7:30 am. No Sunday sleep-ins here. We heed the words of the museum guard, and hope to arrive at our respective museum entrances well before the holiday mob. We take breakfast at a sidewalk café at the astronomical cost of € 7.80 (US$ 9.50), the most expensive breakfast of the trip. Keep in mind that breakfast in France is continental. Later in the trip, Miryam tries to find a cooked breakfast, to no avail. The bread and croissants are divine, the coffee is heavenly, the jam and butter miserly. Cecelia is always asking for more butter. She always gets it, and is never charged.
Even though we have arisen early, we still don't get to the Louvre until 9:30 am. We alight at the Louvre metro station and ascend the escalators right to the entrance underneath the pyramid
01. Quai d'Orsay
. The queue is already long, but it is moving rapidly. Miryam, Bryan and Rocio peel off and enter the Louvre. http://www.paris.org/Musees/Louvre/. Cecelia and I continue on foot over the Seine to the Musée d'Orsay.The Louvre is a monster! You could spend days inside without seeing all of the exhibits. There are around 350,000 priceless objects. Although Miryam and I have been to the Museum before, she wants Bryan and Rocio to see the principal attractions, namely the Mona Lisa, Winged Victory, Venus de Milo, Liberty leading the People, etc. After this, they will join us at the Musée d'Orsay http://www.paris.org/Musees/Orsay/
My second time at this lovely museum, which is pure joy. The building itself and the view from the roof gardens is reason enough to visit. Incredibly this glorious building was slated to be demolished in the 70's. The queue when we arrive is reasonable, and as there is no admission today, we are soon inside and enjoying the wonderful works of 19th century impressionist art. Surprisingly the very best is secreted away up on the top floor. A couple of hours later Miryam and her troop arrive in time to view the best of Monet, Gauguin, Van Gogh et al.
Time presses on, and Cecelia has suggested we visit the modern face of Paris at La Défense. http://www.aviewoncities.com/paris/defense.htm. We took the fast RER underground train to Esplanade de La Defense. Arriving at the surface we were rewarded with a wonderful view over a reflecting pool with modernistic fountains back towards the historical centre of Paris and the Arc de Triomphe. In the other direction, the actual esplanade with ultra-modern buildings on either side of the pedestrian walkway with La Grande Arche de La Defense at the finale. It is almost devoid of people. We realize this is a business district and that on a weekday it would be buzzing with traffic. We walk the esplanade, which is much longer than it seems, in search of somewhere to obtain sustenance. Everything is closed. Finally we arrive at La Grande Arche and find a small sidewalk café open for business. We select sandwiches from its limited menu, and they are excellent, and the rest after our morning's activities is highly appreciated. To one side of the café is a giant TV screen which tells the history of this district. For an amusing but negative side of La Defense, access this site http://www.paris.org/Kiosque/apr01/605slum.html.
