Arts and Leisure

After our introduction to the Metro yesterday, we got to ride the bus today en route to the Louvre and see some of Paris in transit. Traveling around the city and seeing/hearing familiar names and terms definitely reminds me of l'hexagone and 'the spiral' from French civ., but unfortunately, when we were tested on which famous landmarks were found in each arrondissement, the associations didn't always come with visuals; therein, I've discovered that I can be staring at a famous landmark and not really recognize it by sight at all, but instead, only by name. That seems odd, but it was definitely the case as we visited the Louvre today (one of the iconic ones easily recognized) and then walked all around le premiere arrondissement. It was a combo of arts and leisure, with some firsts and interesting experiences thrown in along the way...

Walking through the various galleries in the Louvre was a little like having my humanities book come to life, especially as we toured through the 13th-15th century Italian painting galleries. It was neat to see in person some of the works we'd studied and/or written papers about in the past, even though the collection is much larger and more varied than my few humanities classes could ever cover. The sheer size of the galleries and their interconnectedness make it easy to get turned around and/or lost within the maze of rooms, which is how we briefly turned up in the medieval exhibit in the basement. Still, I knew going in that I wanted to see the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo, so those were definite must-finds (and were thankfully fairly well marked out).

I had been told prior to coming that the Mona Lisa is actually much smaller than you might imagine, and thus, I expected something along the lines of an 8"x10" framed portrait. Signs everywhere throughout the museum also prohibit flash photography, so I was surprised first to discover the Mona Lisa is somewhat larger than I thought it might be and second, to see the swarm of people surrounding it using their camera flashes all while the guards stood by watching. We joined in the group trying to take pictures (but refrained from flash photos), and then set off to hunt down Venus de Milo. There were similar crowds there as well, and one kid in particular who kept jumping into other people's shots. He was not popular with the crowd, especially when he would pop up from behind or around the statue since no one was really taking any photos of it except from the front. I suppose he'll have to be edited out of the one picture of mine he managed to appear in, but then again, that adds to the memory of the day, and I did manage at least one shot that he didn't jump into.

After a little more touring/wandering/trying to find the correct exit in the Louvre, we headed out to scope out restaurants for dinner. In the process, I got to eat my first crepe, which was delicious and the guy making them was quite the interesting character. We walked all over the place in le premiere arrondissement, including Pont Neuf, Place Vendome, Opera Garnier, and the periphery of Notre Dame. It was fun to tour the city, although admittedly, I was tired after the sugar high from my crepe wore off. I did, however, pick up some postcards and two popular children's books from a little bookstore: Alice au Pays des Merveilles and Madeleine, both of which are fun to try and read in French. :)

We returned to the Louvre for a little more touring later on, and then I came back to the hotel, where there ended up being an issue with the room key. The desk clerk said they didn't have the key, but as it turns out, my roommate did leave our key there this morning when we left, so we don't know what happened to it in the interim hours that it was MIA when I returned. Thankfully, though, they issued us a new one and deactivated the old one, so we can once again access our room and have a little leisure time at the end of our day exploring and appreciating art. :)