What a great place. It is so visitor oriented but still carries on its day to day activities. I find it remarkably clean, contrary to what I have been told. It is warm during the day and cool, chilly actually, at night. Yesterday was a little overwhelming with the amount of walking I did. It seems the French like to put escalators where there could be stairs and stairs where there should be escalators. It is 4 full flights of stairs (20 per flight) from the underground Metro station near Norte Dame, (they are also very considerate where they locate benches). Ay my hotel, I am on the fifth floor. What we call the 1st floor is the ground floor here and the 1st floor would be our second floor (they do like to keep you guessing). Again, it is 20 steps, (yes, I counted) per floor. I could use a bench on the 3rd/4th floor but no such luck. I just tell myself, one...more...floor... There is an elevator, kind of. It fits a person and one suitcase. I only used it when I arrived though! I hate the thought of getting stuck in a telephone booth size anything.
Yesterday was fantastic seeing all the great statues and art at the Louvre. If you like statues, all shapes and sizes, this is your place. I had 8 specific pieces I wanted to see and I accomplished 6. The other 2 were in areas I had covered but missed them and I did not want to walk the 27 kilometers back to them. I do plan a return visit. I did visit the Mona Lisa. You have to wonder what the attraction is, I mean I know it is by Leonardo (Davinci, not Decaprio) and it is 600 plus years old but, well, I don't mean to be a little off color here, so to speak, but whats up with the Indian lady, who is obviously Hindu, elbowing her way up to the front of the mob to get a photo of it on her Android? If I was a Indian Hindu would I be into Leonardo and Mona? Well, what just shows to go ya that are appeals to many people for many different reasons. She is beautiful by the way. I actually knew a girl once who was named Mona. The only two Mona's I ever knew of. Why would you name your kid....oh well.
Then I went to see Venus Demilo. I have to do a little research on this statue, I know it is ancient and Greek but thats about it. And I know it is an amazing sculpture. She is not cast, like a statue but carved out of stone by hand. Chiseled and chipped and smoothed all by hand. Truly amazing. I had lunch at the Louvre thinking it would be 2 or 3 time more expensive than a street side Cafe gut it was not. Actually it was a little more reasonable. There is a post office there too, actually an entire underground mall. I went in to get some airmail postcard stamps its been a long time since I needed or purchased stamps. The postal agent told me it is cheaper and faster to put the postcard in an airmail envelope. They are even made to fit postcards. To my left was a line of people waiting to get there mail / postcards cancelled with a Louvre Museum seal. I just watched as the Indian Hindu person elbowed her way yo the front. I took a quick look at the mall. Had a Starbucks coffee and took a photo of the huge Apple store. The French like the electronic gadgets too. I don't mean to sound "old" or anything but when you can rent a tablet with all the info you need to know and more at the sites, it really makes you stop and think. I just go along with my MP3 and listening to the free downloads from Rick Steve's travel site at the museums. So what if there obsolete and they moved an entire wing. I can figure that out.
After the museum, I thought about purchasing a tour bus ticket for about $30.00 that drives around the city and stops at about 40 or 50 spots. You can get on and off all day at whichever sight you want. But...I said myself, I am only wanting to go to one specific place across the city, why spend $30.00 on that? Fir 1,25 Euro, about $1.83, I could take the bus and another bus and another bus. (one thing really, really nice about the cost of things here, there is no .98 or .99 cents of anything. Its 1,10 or 1,50 Euro. The bus trip was very easy. I could even make out the stops names and got to see much of the city and sat with actual French people on the bus. There were tourist too, they are everywhere. I went through 3 or 4 neighborhoods or sections of the city which they actually have a very difficult name for which I am not even going to try to spell. The neighborhood is an old Gothic part of the city. Many buildings are hundreds of years old, businesses and homes. There are old windmills and a hundred years or so ago, Paul Cezzan and Vincent Van Gogh had lived and painted here. There is a cathedral built up on a hill which overlooks Paris now. It is the highest point around and provides a great view. The Cathedral, which is about 1000 years old was established by monks who must have stayed up in the Monestary because I can't imagine anyone walking up and down all those stairs all the time. I am sure the faithful brought them all their needs. I walked up to one of the landings, lookout spots and then spotted a "fanicular" going up the side of the hill.
OPPS, I hit spell check and it tried to change everything to French again, forgot about that, When I undid spell check it deleted my last few paragraphs. To be continued. It is 2:00 AM here.
No comments:
Post a Comment