An eye-full from the Eiffel

6/28
It was June 28, our Eiffel tower day. We woke up early and made a bee-line straight to the tower. The lines weren’t too long and we got tickets to the top after a short wait. Not cheap but what is one to do?

We elevatored to the second level and walked around for too long. The view was mesmerizing, but so was the wait for the elevator to go to the very top. Up there you could see incredibly far from that dizzying height, but the beauty of Paris was also quite far away. While up at the top, nature took its course and first Steve used the bathroom. Clean, tidy, nice bathroom. Benji couldn’t resist. When Benji came out, he had pictures to share.

Back down on the ground, we had a few hours before our 48 hour museum pass expired. So we zipped through the metro system to the Pantheon, making a quick stop for lunch. Cajun chicken sandwich for me, wrap for Marina, smoked salmon bagel for Benji, salmon sandwich for Ilana.

The pantheon was awesome! Huge, ornate, awe-inspiring – a venue used by France to honor some of its dead heroes. In the crypt below, we visited the graves of Victor Hugo (hunchback), Marie Curie (radiation), Dumas’s (Count of Monte Christo) and someone I loved in college, Zola  (Germinal).

After the Pantheon, gelatos got us all back into motion again. So we walked and walked, first just heading into the Luxembourg Gardens, then down the Seine, then across the bridge with all the locks on it, and where did we end up? The Louvre. So we went back in just to use the air conditioning and the bathrooms.

Marina had dinner at home. Benji and I sought dinner in Bezons, and Ilana treated herself to a fancy dinner in Paris. Let them eat cake.

It’s Good to be King

6/27
It’s good to be king, that is, until they chop your head off. June 27. Happy anniversary, Ilana! 20 years. Where’d they go?
It was Versailles day. We shopped  for breakfast and lunch food and then we got on the train headed to Versailles.

Versailles was crowded as expected and crazy hot. Even though we had our tickets, we queued for about an hour under the blazing sun. Finally we got in and we explored the palace, room to room, with our audio guides explaining every detail. The hall of mirrors was glorious and the ceiling paintings were pretty awesome. The gilded everything was pretty darn rococo for me. I liked the king’s bedroom; Marina liked the Queen’s bedroom; Benji like the war room; and Ilana liked taking pictures of everything.
After touring the palace, we strolled in the gardens. Actually we raced from shade to shade, eventually trying to watercolor paint. Lunch was the amazing smoked salmon sandwiches that we bought in the morning at our local bakery – delicious!
From Versailles we took the train to the Musee D’Orsey, the impressionist museum. We were all quite impressed with the layout of the museum, much simpler than the Louvre, and the gorgeous collection of paintings by Monet, Manet, Renoir, Van Gogh, Degas, Seraut, etc. Monet, of course, stole the show. My favorite was the brooding London painting with his Lily Pond as a close second. Benji chooses van Goghs self-portrait; Ilana was the Dance at the Mulan by Renoir; And Marina refuses to answer.
We jumped a metro and zipped over to the Notre Dame neighborhood for our usual donor faire: meat, tzaziki, pita and fries. Benji and Marina are still confused about what is french food I told them that the fries are french.

Lost in the Louvre

6/26
It was Louvre day. The weather: crazy hot. Time to get out of the apartment: insanely slow. We arrived at the Louvre around 11:30 and the females wanted to get lunch. So we walked in a 95° heat to find a bakery where they bought sandwiches. Marina and I set off on the odyssey that was the search for tickets. After 50,000 miles we learned that there are no on-site ticket sales.

So then we searched for some hidden internet café. Nope. I found Benji and Ilana and then followed another lead. Finally with free Wi-Fi, we tried to buy tickets online. But the secondary security on my credit card denied us. Erg! By that time all the tickets for the day we’re gone. We’d have to come back another day. But, undeterred, we opted to buy the the exorbitant two day pass €48 each, to get in the Louvre today and Versailles the next day.

Once in the Louvre I was determined to see everything. In the words of Steven Blatt, “we are not leaving until I get my money's worth.

The Mona Lisa was small. Venus to Milo, a bit drab. But the Wings of Victory rocked and the Raft of the Medusa was cool. Rembrandt’s self portrait was cool and we enjoyed a very nice mummy in the Egypt section. The museum itself was quite beautiful. Marina and I blazed around, getting infinitely lost. At one point, trying to find the medieval section, we traversed the Egyptian section full of sarcophagi and sphinxes at least three times.

After three wings, 60 sets of stairs, 9 miles, 3000 paintings, 500 sculptures, and one Maori stone head, we could see no more. We didn’t get home until 9 PM and we still hadn’t eaten dinner. But before we headed home, we strolled through the Tuileries garden, adjacent to the Louvre. It was a beautiful mix of flowers, fountains, sculptures and beautiful architecture.