27 Jun - Wednesday the Louvre is open

Woke at 6 and went for a walk on the left bank?  Which ever bank was opposite our apartment. The morning was cool but not misty or rainy. Wandered  up the road from the Pont Sully. This was my first lone walk in Paris. There are so many apartments in Paris on narrow streets with little shops which at that hour were all closed. Charming and quiet.

Walked past the police station where they had large posters advertising the police in different roles; crowd control on horseback, polishing dress uniforms,  being snipers on a roof. Makes one think about different cultures. In Canada our policemen have to deal with drugs and gangs but somehow that photo of the sniper on the roof seemed to project a more dangerous situation for the gendarmes and police in Europe.

I continued up the street  and passed this odd looking kiosk on the street. I looked in and it looked like a place to rent cars?  I thought how? what? I found out later that there are lots of these little kiosks around the city where one can rent an electric car! Use your credit card, get the keys and directions to where the car is parked and a map to where there are other spots are in the city to drop it off when you are done. The next time I am in paris I will go into one but I will not rent a car as they drive crazy over there, especially the motorcycles who squeeze themselves into spaces not meant for a mouse.

Wandered up the street passing closed shops and came to a cafe "Le Weekend" so popped in and got a juice and used the facilities. A nice  little place that was already with customers and I needed a relief break. Followed the wider busier street and came to the circle with the bastille spire in the center. This was where the bastille was located before it was torn down by the mobs in the french revolution.

I decided to go back a different route and got myself a little lost. found the Rue du pas de la Mule and wondered why it was that no mules were allowed. Came to a nice park in a center square of old townhouse apartments with a synagogue behind iron bars on one side of the square.

While I was walking around the locked park, the police were rousting homeless people out from under the overhangs of area.  There were some plagues on the buildings which I investigated. It seems that Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, the Marquise de Sevigne was born in the hotel on the 6 feb 1626.  Who? It turns out, I found out when writing this blog that, according to Wikipedia, she was a french aristocrat, remembered for her letter-writing. Most of her letters, celebrated for their wit and vividness, were addressed to her daughter. She is revered in France as one of the great icons of French literature.  

I continued on out of the square, passing a few small family groups still sleeping under overhangs a little farther down the street.  Window shopping past a variety of small shops I made a few wrong turns and wound up in a dead end narrow lane-way with imaginings of being mugged by homeless gypsies, but eventually found my way back to the river safe and sound and from there it was easy.

Went back to the apartment and Margie was up. We (Margie and I) had decided to get to the louvre by 830ish to beat the rush and be the first people in the door.  I had a shower, changed and grabbed a bite to eat. We all headed out around 815 to find the subway which it turned out was just on the other side of the river across the Pont Marie.

We were at the Louvre by 830ish. There were some young men trying to sell eiffle tower statuettes around the entrance gates but they were chased off repeatedly by police on horseback.

We met a nice Australian couple and Margie and the wife went and sat under the big horses ass, while we stood in line. Margie adds " I didn't realize we were under the horses ass when she took the picture!"  Maureen was a little grumpy as she does not like waiting in line or getting anywhere early so did not really take part in the conversation.

We were in at 9.  The Louvre is huge. Maureen had been there the last time she was in Paris and told us that it would be difficult to do more than the morning as our brain turns to mush after 3 or four hours of looking at art. Well, we were willing to turn our brains to mush in the pursuit of a personal art experience.

We wanted to see the Mona Lisa so figured out which section of the Louvre she was in and worked our way there. We saw statues, carved ceiling moulding, painted ceilings, Boticelli's, Rembrandt's, religious and political beautiful art everywhere! Art, Art, Art! Our brains were turning to mush and it was great!

Mona has her own room and when we got there a large crowd was standing in front of her so I wormed my way to the front and took a couple of shots, no flash, and wormed my way back out of the crush. There was a real nice painting of a young girl outside the Mona room also done by Leonardo and much easier to see.

We continued to wander around. We saw the hall where the tapestries are kept.  Very impressive. Margie forgot herself and almost touched one of them right beside where one of the guards was sitting and was scolded 'ne touche pas!' We all reacted. We had been so absorbed by how the tapestries had been made that any one of us might have been the one to touch the tapestry. We moved on.
The Louvre is huge. It is the largest art museum in the world and by one we were toast and had to leave to save our brains. Maureen was right. Yes-after awhile everything begins to look the same-which is not good! You cannot appreciate it anymore. So we were right to leave when we did to return another day.

The day was pleasant so we wandered through the gardens beside the louvre. The Trocadero? Lots of people but not too crowded as the park is very large and laid out with lots of side paths and statuary and gardens. Decided to take the metro to the opera house.

According to our map there was supposed to be a stop right by the louvre and the metro would be coming very often so we headed off.
In no time we were at the right stop and finding our way to the opera house. There had been stories about gypsies there but by this time Margie and I were old hands with gypsies so we did not worry. Actually, we didn't even see any. Margie did not have any good batteries so I went across the street and got her some. Made it back with time to spare before our tour.

The Opera house is very impressive with architecture that is over the top. Beautiful! We signed up for the tour (it comes with the Paris pass so why not). We did not have to wait long. Our tour guide was a gentleman who spoke quickly and walked even faster. Did manage to keep up and take photos for the first 30 minutes. got lots of great information.

Saw the miniature hall of mirrors, the peace room the war room, the main staircases and then Maureen and I were taking pictures of a very interesting ceiling and we lost the tour. They just disappeared. We went where we thought they had gone into the very dark theater but could not see or hear th;em.

We wandered all over the opera house and met with several other tour groups but not ours. Margie was with the tour and was sad that we were missing all the great information that she was getting. But we saw things that she did not see. We saw the library with all the old scores of all the operas performed at the house. We saw the costume rooms with some really spectacular costumes. We saw the gift shop where we bought souvenirs.
The tour went into the opera house by the stage but it was very dark in there as they were doing some work in the building and Dennie and Maureen missed us in the dark.
We waited in the main lobby for Margie, hoping that the tour didn't end in some strange location and that we would not miss her or not run into each other until we got back to the apartment. We did meet Margie again and she told us all about the part of the tour that we missed. It sounded very interesting.
We picked up a quick lunch (the best food I had had in Paris so far, the Eiffle tower included) And the lowest prices! at a little sandwich shop in the metro station and took the metro back to notre dam and  made our way back to the Apartment where we all had a nap.
Around 6 we went back to Notre dame and found out that our show that we bought tickets for had actually already happened the night before. We had misread the day on the ticket. We couldn't get into the Saint Chappelle, it was full.
We caught the bato bus.
We watched the people on the river banks. Every night that it is not raining they come out and congregate, large groups, singles, couples, small groups, people dancing, people playing games. All so young, so alive, so French. (although I am sure that more a than a few were tourists).

The river boats only go in one direction and we took it just a few stops to the gardens stop just past the notre dame stop. The evening was lovely and warm so we walked back along the river past the people we had just seen from the river. the next time I am in Paris I will buy one of those great little sandwiches from the sandwich bar and go to the river to eat it.

We walked along the river and found a pink river boat called Six Huit to have dinner on.  The meal was very nice, curried chicken and I had crepes, and the lights on the river cruises and batobuses going by were blindingly bright. The waiter kept giving us the bill early and he changed the bill for each new thing that we ordered. The dog on the boat was a cute terrier and the view of Notre dame in the evening was lovely. I really enjoyed the meal on this boat. The weather was mild and the evening pretty especially with that view of Notre Dame right beside us.

After dinner we walked back across bridges toward the plaza in front of Notre dame. An accordian player entertained us with french music. In front of Notre Dame we saw some young men dancing and  then in the square were dancers, fire dancing in front of Notre dame cathedral.

Lots of tourists out enjoying the warm evening.
wandered back to our apartment, planning thursdays events.  up early again tomorrow so right to bed when we got home.  We got to sleep at midnight and all slept very well.