02 May 2011 – Paris (Monday)

The weather forecast for today was for sunshine – but unless they meant liquid sunshine they were wrong.  The clouds are in and it is not raining hard, but it is definitely not sunny.  We both commented that we were glad we took the Seine river tour yesterday and the walk in the park.  So today we are going to go to Louvre and the Center Pomidou and finish the day stopping by a gay coffee house that we had heard about.  But before we got organized we realized that we really did have to do our laundry this evening so need to get our tokens for the machines from the front desk before we left in case they were not around when we got back.  Consequently it was almost a short time after 9:00 by the time we left.

We decided, because of the locations of the two museums that we would return to the Louvre to check out the Egyptian exhibits and the Greek exhibits.  Then we wanted to tour the floor of French artists and enjoy the paintings.  Our first hurtle today was to learn that Wes’ metro pass did not work.  Since this metro station does not have any ticket offices (only dispensing machines) we had to improvise so I went through and then opened the exit door to let him come through.  I figured we would be ok if stopped since we did have a legitimate pass for the metro to show if asked.  No one asked.  Ok, before we leave for home today we will have to have that checked out.

Our next surprise was to arrive at the Louvre and head for the Museum Pass entrance where there should not be a line-up only to discover a LONG line-up.  Today it looked like half the elementary schools in the city are on a field trip and they have all arrived right now.  We got in line to see how quickly it would move and found another couple from Boston in line behind us so we had a good chat.  They are here only for a few days and yesterday was the Labour Day so they could not do some of their goals and today it looked like a long line up to get into the Louvre, but fortunately a couple of the classes pulled out of the line to organize and we moved up quickly.  In fact we only were in a line up for about 15 minutes which is not bad since the line up for those without tickets was likely a minimum of one hour but likely closer to 2.

So once we got inside we headed off to find the Egyptian exhibits and discovered the Medieval Louvre exhibit at the entrance to the floors with the Egyptian exhibits.  The Louvre Palace is a former royal palace situated between the Tuileries Gardens and the church of Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois.  Its origins date back to the medieval period, and its present structure has evolved in stages since the 16th century.   The Palais du Louvre was originally constructed as a fortress, built in the 12th century by king Philip II Augustus along with the City's first enclosure wall to defend the banks of the Seine river against invaders from the north.  

Philip Augustus' fortress of 1190 was not a royal residence but a sizable arsenal comprising a moated quadrilateral (seventy-eight by seventy-two meters) with round bastions at each corner, and at the center of the north and west walls.  Defensive towers flanked narrow gates in the south and east walls. At the center of this complex stood a keep, the Grosse Tour (fifteen meters in diameter and thirty meters high) called the Donjon, or the Keep.  Two inner buildings abutted the outer walls on the west and south sides.   It was this archaeological restoration of the original fortress in the Sully wing of the museum that caught our attention. 

From this we finally found the Egyptian Exhibits.  This was not as easy as it may seem since the Louvre is a very large and complex structure and getting to a specific place requires close attention to the maps, stairs and hallways.  However we were really impressed and what impressed us the most is that not only were there antiquities on display, but a sense a sense of the life and culture of ancient Egypt on display.  Often with the exhibits were explanations and descriptions so we felt that we were not only looking at remains of an ancient culture, but we also were introduced to the culture itself.  In one display, which I did not get a picture of, were samples of the types of food eaten both by the ‘aristocrats’ and the ‘common citizen’.  In fact they even had samples of food taken from a pyramid to show what would have been added to the tomb.

I think that the pictures can describe best the exhibits we saw but the pictures are a very poor representation of the amount of exhibits.

As we walked through the halls we were constantly watching out for the student groups.  I have to say that I would have to give credit to the teachers and parents involved with taking a class of Grade 1-3 students into the Louvre.  The students were well behaved for students, but this is a very busy place with crowds of people where often you are literally crammed together.  To take small children on a field trip into that situation would take more moxie than I think I could manage.  There were older students as well (really the place crawled with students and tourists today) and I have no idea how the teachers managed to maintain control and attendance.  I would suggest to the French Government that one day a month should be set aside for school tours and close the Louvre to the public on that one day.  Or since the Louvre is closed on Tuesday, open it for schools only.

At any rate, we finished our tour of the Egyptian exhibits and decided to continue to the next area and check out the Greek exhibits.  We were not as thrilled with this since we had just been to Greece and seen very much the same there.  We did not spend a lot of time here especially when we had our route blocked by a section ‘under renovations’.  We had to retrace our steps and go down a floor and back up to the floor at the other end.  We did this once and when we came across a second room under construction we decided to end the Greek exhibition tour and started to look for the 19^th Century French Painters section of the Louvre. 

This is a very large collection of artwork with room after room with paintings on display.  We did not really recognize a lot of the artist’s names but then we have never taken art appreciation courses.  So we can only say, we like some and did not really care for others.   About half way through the exhibit we came across another series of room blocked off and since we have been in the Louvre for just over 4 hours already we decided to call it a day and head out for lunch. 

On the way to lunch we had to walk along the street beside the Louvre which has tourist’s shops.  The shops have expanded their displays onto the sidewalk taking up half the width.  Remember that there is a large crowd of people in this area every day; you can imagine how congested it gets.  As long as everyone moves passing left shoulder to left shoulder it flows nicely.  However, all it takes is one person to decide to stop to look at a display or someone from the other direction to try to stop to look at a display and everything grinds to a hold.  This two block section of sidewalk is where we noticed a shop that sells backpack and since the zipper on Wes’ daypack has broke we stopped to check it out.  It took great skill to manoeuvre into the shop and equal skill to get back out and catch the flow.   

After lunch (about 3) we both decided that we really could not face another museum today so we cancelled our idea of heading to the Center Pomidou and the café to head back to our apartment.  Wes’ cold has not gotten any better and his throat is a bit sore so home early seems like a good plan.  This would give me time to work on our itinerary which involves sorting out how we will travel from Portugal to the Netherlands at the end of May.  (We decided to fly because of time and distance, so I had to find a flight and get it booked.)  In addition this would give us a chance to get the laundry done.

Speaking of flying, I should mention that when you are not familiar with the different airlines and the issues with them you never really know which to use.  Back home I have a good sense of which to use and have heard the stories.  Here we really have no contacts so rely on the internet for reviews.

Ok, the laundry – what fun.  The apartment building we are staying has laundry facilities downstairs that are ‘token’ operated.  We have the tokens from the front desk so we head down to find they are very small front loaders.  We decide to split our laundry into two loads but since there are only two washing machines and one is being used, we have to get one started and plan to return when the other one is finished to start the second.  Not a problem since these machines show how much longer until the wash is finished so I headed back to the room and waited.  So I head back down (Wes is sleeping now) to discover the wash finished but no one has come to claim the clothes in the machine thus keeping the machine tied up.  After waiting for a bit I talked to housekeeping – who was down in the area – and she agreed we should just put the clothes on top of the dryer and leave them which is what we did.  Then I could start the wash.  As it turns out I was there taking the last of the clothes out of the dryer when the lady finally arrived for her clothes.  She would have tied up the washer for an extra 2 hours if I had not moved the clothes out…I find that really inconsiderate but said nothing.  When I went down to put the clothes into the dryer I had lots of fun figuring out the instructions which are all written in French. I thought that I was mis-reading the instructions when I could not get the dryer started and had to get help from the front desk.  However I was doing it correctly, she just had to reset the token box.

The good news is that we have the laundry done, the flight to Amsterdam is done, the itinerary is roughed out and all I need to work on is places to stay and we are taking a break this evening.  Oh, and it is Election Day back home and we have no clue what is happening.  But then we are not able to vote this time so there is really nothing we can do but wait and see.