May 21 - Paris

Today we started our full tourist agenda in Paris.  I don’t know what we did to make the tourist gods angry with us but it has been raining for most of the day.  It matches our experience in Rome last year.  The forecast is for rain for most of our time in Paris.  I guess we’ll just have to adapt.

After breakfast we took a thirty minute stroll to the Louvre. Once inside it is easy to understand why the Louvre is considered the world’s most outstanding art museum.  There is so much art that unless you are an art historian, it becomes overwhelming.   We were there for about five hours and I doubt if we saw 10 percent of its collection of thirty five thousand pieces of art.  There were exhibits from Rubens, Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, just to name a few of the famous artists that are shown there. We both agreed that we liked the Flemish school of art from the 17^th century the best. Some of the more famous pieces of art that we saw were the Ancient Greek sculpture of Venus de Milo, Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa",  and painting called "Liberty Leading the People".  

Venus de Milo

Mona Lisa

Liberty Leading the People

The Louvre was a royal palace from the 12th century until the French Revolution, when it was decided to make it a permanent museum to house French historical artefacts. When you enter the courtyards you are awestruck by the majestic beauty of the architecture of the palace.  The walls are decorated with statues of famous French citizens and each courtyard has its own set of fountains.

In the main courtyard is a giant glass pyramid that you enter and then descend into the main concourse of the Louvre where you can buy your entrance tickets.  Somehow this modern piece of architecture just seems out of place.

When we arrived, the ticket line was longer than we have ever seen at any site in our life. I suspected that it would have taken several hours to gain admission. Luckily for us we were approached by a couple who offered us their Paris museum passes which allowed us to bypass the lineup.  They were leaving Paris and no longer had any use for their passes. These passes will also allow us to enter other museums in Paris and skip their lineups for another day. It has a monetary value of $120.  Someone up there is looking out for us.  Now we have to pay it forward.

We found out that the advice given by Rick Steves is wrong when it comes to entering the Louvre.  Instead of going to the pyramid to get your tickets, to avoid the crowds go to the "Louvre Carrousel" and either buy the museum pass at a store in this mall or enter the Louvre ticket kiosk by this entrance.  You'll save a lot of time

The buildings in Paris are very different from the building in Rome and Amsterdam.  They tend to be a couple of stories taller and the roofs have a gentle curve to them which gives them a unique appearance. Also the balcony railings tend to be more ornamental.

You have to love French cooking. For dinner we went to La Dorcia.  The menu was in French so we had no real idea what we were ordering, other than the very basics.  I had squid for a starter and Bar fish for the main course.  Marg had butternut lasagna for her starter and lamb for her main course.  The interesting part of the meal was the different sauces and side dishes that came with the main course or Les Plats.  We had a bottle of Bordeaux wine that went with meal.  We must admit that we had full and content bellies after we finished. It was an outstanding dining experience.