We decide to go see the Mona Lisa, or rather La Jaconde as the French and Italians call it. Everyone seemed to be going the same way, but at least we could get it over with. We walked up the staircase and saw this statue. I love it.
I need to go research all that we saw because my ignorance will annoy you throughout this blog because I have no idea what any of this stuff is. By golly if I get anything out of this experience in Paris, I will learn about history and art. Apologies go out to Mr. Graham, 8th grade history; Coach Cantrell - 9th grade history; Ms. Puskarich - 11th/12th grade Art History. I now understand why all you taught me actually does apply to my life.We walked through our first room of paintings and I heard my name. What? I look and I see Muriel, my dear friend from my French class in Dallas. I couldn't believe it. I had told Sam and Melissa a day or two before that I had a feeling I would have a Dallas run-in while I was in Paris. Sam said, "This week Connie?" and I was like "Of course not Sam, but I just have a feeling it's going to happen." Well sure enough, it happened a couple of days later. I'm prophetic. I knew the guinea pig would pass away and now I am bumping into people I knew from home.
Muriel was just in Spain for three weeks visiting family and had come to Paris to see the sights. She had on her Spanish headphones that told her all about the exhibits. She walked around with us the entire time we were there. It was such a cool addition to our group. We headed toward the direction of the Mona Lisa. It was crazy. You couldn't really get close to it and it was covered with really thick glass. People were all around and I was lucky enough to get this unobstucted picture of it. Signs everywhere throughout the museum said no cameras and no flashes, but no one cared. No one even got in trouble for it. I think the guards knew it's an uphill battle.
I can't even tell you which rooms we walked in, but everything was so cool. It hurt my head to think how long ago all of these were done. The ceilings blew my mind. Each one was so detailed and beautiful, um and not to mention 40 feet in the air and upside down. I can't paint a 4x4 picture on a table.
I will say that we were miserable during our entire time at the Louvre. I should have taken a picture of the crowds. At one point we looked outside and saw a massive line all the way around the glass pyramid. I am glad that we didn't have to wait in that, or else we wouldn't have come in at all. We felt as though the entire museum was an over decorated metro car. It was that packed and that stinky and stuffy. Every person had a camera and everyone of them was looking either to the side or up, not in front of them. Toes were stepped on, elbows were shoved in faces of short people like me, and way too many people were talking on their phone and obstructing the view of historical pieces. We started getting very irritable and quiet. We know what that means. We need food, caffeine, and chocolate. The cafeteria was open but after looking through it, they didn't have sandwiches. What decent cafeteria doesn't have sandwiches? Sam and Melissa had to go on a search for an ATM for some cash, which added 15 minutes to our irritability and lack of food in our stomachs. Once we got in line it didn't take too long. I chose a baguette with ham and cheese, but the other girls chose the regular All-American bread sandwich. I had to bite down and pull as hard as I could to get a piece off of the sandwich, but I still found it delicious.
We walked around and found saw some more exhibits and took some more pics, but we were anxious to get out of there.
There was this room that was blocked off. It was sort of a mess, but I found it so interesting. There were these old, ancient pieces just waiting to find a place in the Louvre. A little holding room. I was pleased to see that one of the statues had on flip flops.
Melissa LOVES moates. She talked about moates on many occasions, so this place was like her little playground. I must admit that I was quite a fan of them as well. It made me realize how smart and innovative people were back then. They had to be resourceful. I felt very lazy and ignorant during my entire visit in the Louvre. You can't help but feel that way. What will I have that will last for hundreds of years? This blog? A few token items I've sewn for friends? I might start on my masterpiece soon. I will let you know what it is later, stay tuned.
Here are some pics of us girls before we made our Louvre departure.
And of course, the wonder of the Louvre!
Once we left, we walked through the Tuileries and to the Concorde metro. I love this stop because of the tiles. I know it spells out some message, but I will have to wait till I learn French to figure it all out.
We took the metro to the 15th to do some shopping. I wanted to introduce the girls to H&M and Zara. How exciting! We get over there and it appeared to be more of a ghost town rather than a thriving shopping district. I had also wanted to visit a shoe shop called Andre to get some shoes I've been stalking for a while. I kept getting nervous and would chicken-out of asking the salesperson if they had a size 38. I wanted to do it all in French and I knew I would butcher the experience and run out with no shoes. Well we couldn't do any of that today. I just happened to be a French bank holiday. Don't ask me why. I am sure it was Baguette Day or Left Handed People's Holiday. Something absurd for the French to take a day off. We didn't have many options. We couldn't even go to the grocery store to get food for our next day in Normandy.
We went back to the flat and called it an early night. We needed to get some sleep for our roadtrip to Normandy. We knew it would be eventful, so we wanted to be prepared.
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