Our first museum was the Louvre; we arrived around 9:30 and I told Stef to expect to be here until around 2pm, she was so happy! We were able to get in very easily with our pre-purchased tickets, which was great. We headed first the the Mona Lisa, which was already busy. Unfortunately as you have to stand so far away from her you cant fully appreciate her beauty.
We decided to hunt down the art pictured on the museum map, about 20 pieces in total. We managed to see all apart from 2-3 which were on loan to other museums. We saw sculptures, paintings, napoleons apartments and the remains of the original palace on the site. We also saw heaps of the other artwork (and more egyptian stuff) as the pieces we were hunting were all over the museum. In general we concluded that painters really liked to paint naked women and Jesus, and sculptures liked to sculpt naked men.
Stef's favorite thing at the Louvre was ... leaving. Just kidding, she really liked the Napoleons apartments. I really liked the statue with wings and no head.
During our hunt for the art we had to go up and down about a million flights of stairs, and walked at least 10km!
When we finished at the Louvre, we walked to a nearby bridge, one of the two in Paris that people have covered with padlocks representing their love (or just that they had been to Paris maybe?). We had been forewarned of this and came prepared with a padlocked engraved with our names, 20-05-04 and 20-02-2010. We placed it on the bridge and hopefully it will still be there if we are lucky enough to return to Paris in the future.
Our next museum was the Musee l'Orangerie. This museum has 8 huge paintings of the water lillies by Monet. They are beautiful paintings and painted in such deep rich colours. I especially liked that they were kept in an air conditioned room! At this museum we also saw paintings by a number of other impressionists including Renoir, as well as some paintings by Picasso.
As this museum is located in the Tuilleries gardens we felt it was compulsory to stop in one of the cafes for afternoon tea - crepes of course. This time topped with chocolate cream sauce, mmm. I love the rows of shady trees in this garden.
As it was getting late we decided to skip the third museum (Musee d'Orsay). I had been before, and, well, Stef isn't the biggest fan of museums or art. Our last museum for the day was the Musee Rodin. You may have heard of Rodin's sculpture, the thinker. If not check out the picture. This museum was a bargain, only €1 to enter the garden area, where many of the sculptures were, including the thinker, and we got to use the toilets for free.
In this garden we also found the sculptures that inspired Beyonce's single ladies dance. See the picture and decide for yourself. I hope the museum gets royalties!
As we had to go via the Champs Elyses to get to our next destination, we decided to drop in to Laduree again for some more delicious macaroons. We also found an Adidas shop with French rugby jerseys for Stef.
As it was our last dinner in Paris (and our last real dinner in Europe) we decided to go to the Latin Quarter. We were pretty hungry so chose the first decent looking French restaurant. Stef ordered snails... they were surprisingly delicios and much better than what we imagined(I though they would be like leather and stef thought they would squirt juices). They tasted like what they were cooked in - butter and garlic. The texture was kind of like mussels, but less chewy. I would definitely recommend trying them if you get the chance to. The rest of our dinner was delicious, and we even had some entertaining street performers come along while we were dining. And two free coffees thrown in for good measure too.
Altogether a great last night!
Tomorrow we have to check out and lug our bags to the train station to store them for the day. We are then going to explore Montmarte where artists (stef is soooo excited) and the moulin rouge are, before heading to the airport to catch our flights home. Stef is really looking forward to her cups of teas, newspapers and magazines (in English!) and watching sport. I have been so busy I don't really miss things from home (just people), but I cannot wait to get into my bed!!
See you soon!
- Heidi xx
Photos:
- Stef trying to use the snail tongs
- "Single Ladies" sculpture
- Stef trying the snail
- Our padlock
- In the shade in the Tuilleries garden
- Stef and the Mona Lisa
- Stef on the lock bridge
- Me with Rodin's thinker
- Me in the original Louvre
- Stef in Napoleon's apartments
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