In which Martin visits the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower and we learn some surprising things about shopping in Paris.
Monday was the day for visiting the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower. So in the morning we headed off to the Louvre on the Metro. The metro is great, different to the London Underground (which is also fantastic). London metro everyone maintains a slightly detached air even while squashed nose to nose. The Parisian tolerate all sorts of ruckus, people playing instruments, talking loudly, watching noisy TV shows on their mobile device. One bloke was even playing a mobile game with volume turned up to ear splitting levels - no one seemed to mind. They basically treated the metro as an extension of the street. Probably because no journey is that long - you're never more than 30 mins away from anywhere.
We arrived at the Louvre...to see tourists and school kids stretched from one end to the other. Too many! I know it's ironic me saying that.. me being a school kid, but it really detracts from the experience when you're trying to look at something and next minute a chic woman with an umbrella in the air goes marching by leading a bunch of sheep nodding and photographing everything.
The first thing we did was go and see the Mona Lisa. It looked like... the Mona Lisa. Surely the most over produced picture in the history of mankind. It's over 500 years old and apart from 2 years when some Italian "patriot" nicked off with it.. it's been residing at the Louvre since 1797, so it's got significant history and basically stands of the symbol of the arts but frankly to me it just looks like some woman who's left her hat on for too long.
You need weeks to see a place like the Louvre, so I headed to the medieval section and the "statues" before finishing up with the Napoleon III apartments. All very interesting although I have to say the apartments were completely over the top. Rich, baroque style where more is apparently more. Thank goodness the empire came to the end before they ran out of gold leaf.
The Eiffel Tower on the other hand was the soul of simplicity, engineered beauty with this delicate quality even up close. Although I was surprised to find that it was a brown rather than the grey steel colour of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. There was only one lift going up, so we waited quite a while to get going... but it was worth it. They view of Paris was excellent and it's worth while going just to see the pictures of the different noters who have been up there.
It's the tallest structure in Paris and it shall remain so because they refuse to allow anything larger.
The next morning it was off to the Notre Dame. Which looks as you would expect..... like a large Cathedral. There were hordes of tourists and school kids around and since I had no desire to pay to enter, I took some ugly photos of the Charles the Great statue (or Charlemagne if you prefer) and left. I didn't see anyone swinging from gargoyle to gargoyle.
The rest of time in Paris was spent shopping, eating and catching up on correspondence. Nothing much to relate except for morning tea at Galleries Lafayette the Special of the Day was... champagne and caviare for a cool 32 euro. At least 2 lots of people ordered it the half hour we were there.. one of them looked like russian mafia.... those merry band of thugs have certainly spoiled the black turtle neck as a "look".
With Adelle's guidance I purchased a couple of items.... at 40% off which made the prices somewhat less eye watering.
Next stop : Prague.
Points if you can name the movie where the heading came from. (Googling is cheating)
We arrived at the Louvre...to see tourists and school kids stretched from one end to the other. Too many! I know it's ironic me saying that.. me being a school kid, but it really detracts from the experience when you're trying to look at something and next minute a chic woman with an umbrella in the air goes marching by leading a bunch of sheep nodding and photographing everything.
The first thing we did was go and see the Mona Lisa. It looked like... the Mona Lisa. Surely the most over produced picture in the history of mankind. It's over 500 years old and apart from 2 years when some Italian "patriot" nicked off with it.. it's been residing at the Louvre since 1797, so it's got significant history and basically stands of the symbol of the arts but frankly to me it just looks like some woman who's left her hat on for too long.
You need weeks to see a place like the Louvre, so I headed to the medieval section and the "statues" before finishing up with the Napoleon III apartments. All very interesting although I have to say the apartments were completely over the top. Rich, baroque style where more is apparently more. Thank goodness the empire came to the end before they ran out of gold leaf.
The Eiffel Tower on the other hand was the soul of simplicity, engineered beauty with this delicate quality even up close. Although I was surprised to find that it was a brown rather than the grey steel colour of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. There was only one lift going up, so we waited quite a while to get going... but it was worth it. They view of Paris was excellent and it's worth while going just to see the pictures of the different noters who have been up there.
It's the tallest structure in Paris and it shall remain so because they refuse to allow anything larger.
The next morning it was off to the Notre Dame. Which looks as you would expect..... like a large Cathedral. There were hordes of tourists and school kids around and since I had no desire to pay to enter, I took some ugly photos of the Charles the Great statue (or Charlemagne if you prefer) and left. I didn't see anyone swinging from gargoyle to gargoyle.
The rest of time in Paris was spent shopping, eating and catching up on correspondence. Nothing much to relate except for morning tea at Galleries Lafayette the Special of the Day was... champagne and caviare for a cool 32 euro. At least 2 lots of people ordered it the half hour we were there.. one of them looked like russian mafia.... those merry band of thugs have certainly spoiled the black turtle neck as a "look".
With Adelle's guidance I purchased a couple of items.... at 40% off which made the prices somewhat less eye watering.
Next stop : Prague.
Points if you can name the movie where the heading came from. (Googling is cheating)
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