Only one thing on the agenda today and that was the Louvre. A bit overcast, with some rain in the Parisian sky made for a perfect museum day. Our apartment is only about a 10-15 minute walk from the world's biggest museum so we left early and found a great little boulangerie along the way to get some breakfast.
With pain au chocolat in hand we walked to the Pont des Arts to eat before meeting our Louvre guide. Mistake. We were accosted by two gypsies trying to get us to make donations to a fake charity. The problem was we were seated so getting away proved a tad difficult. One of the gypsies was quite aggressive to the point Teneille almost told her to f**k off in French. This is the same woman who will actively change which side of me she is walking on through a shopping centre to put my body between hers and any charity people trying to grab our attention (and money). Teneille was still quite riled up about the whole exchange 10 minutes later.
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| Pont des Arts... you can't put padlocks on the bridge anymore but that hasn't stopped people trying on the lamps. Hats off to the people who made this clump look like a heart. |
We also saw this bizarre police cavalcade that literally stopped traffic to enable the procession through. There must have been at least 10 bikes, four sedans with all officers carrying semi-automatic weapons and three heavily armoured vans. No idea what it was about but they weren't letting anyone break their formation.
We met our Louvre guide and a lovely couple from Yorkshire who were also tagging along. The guide was only showing us the outside of the Louvre and explaining some of the building's history before cutting us lose inside the museum to do our own thing. Much like our Notre Dame tour I found the history of the Louvre quite remarkable. It was originally a fortress on the Seine in order to detect and warn Notre Dame of potential attacks from France's enemies. Various monarchs and military leaders (including Napoleon) extended and upgraded the fortress over time to make it a palace. There was also an incident with the protestants where hundreds of people had shown up to a wedding at the Louvre palace when the mother of the groom had a change of heart about marrying her son off to a protestant so she ordered the walls closed and every protestant on the palace grounds slaughtered. Game of Thrones' red wedding, anyone?
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| The Louvre... Lovely except for those stupid pyramids. |
Our guide was lovely and had a great passion for the Louvre although he made it quite clear he hated the glass pyramids with the fire of a thousand suns.
Once inside the museum we made a beeline for the Mona Lisa. It was bigger than I expected after hearing everyone say how small it was. Teneille loved Venus de Milo as well as the Egyptian collection. We were disappointed not to have access to the opulent Napoleon rooms as they were closed for works but hopefully we'll see that kind of residence on day trip to Versailles next week.
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| Found her... |
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| Some dead guy. |
Again, we got straight into the landmark - no lines to speak of - but the one thing we did have trouble with was the bloody map. The museum was impossible to navigate accurately. We thought we were heading in one direction but ended up somewhere entirely different from where we wanted. Even when we knew exactly where we were on the map and walked in a straight line we wound up someplace we hadn't expected. It was quite infuriating. But there were lots of swords and statues and carvings and statues and paintings and one or two statues. The sculptures were really quite impressive but where others see men worshipping gods I see weeping angels from Doctor Who and kept needing to look over my shoulder.
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| Greeks and Romans invented the original selfie... |
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| Ceilings the way they were meant to be. |
Teneille was feeling quite a bit more confident with her French on the walk back to the apartment so we stopped at the boulangerie from the morning to buy une baguette, deux croissant, une mousse chocolat and une eclair chocolat. We also stopped at a fromagerie to get some cheese varieties and ham. This gave us the bare necessities to survive in Paris so we headed off. We devoured the baguette, cheese and ham when we got back to the apartment. Thanks a lot Paris. You've ruined cheese and bread for us.
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| Mmmm... French bread and cheeses... |
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| So much cheese. |
With our walk to the Louvre and back plus the walking through the museum itself I put our km count for today at a conservative nine. So that's 27km to date on the trip.
We aren't completely wrecked tonight so will actually venture out to have some dinner at a restaurant. The plan is to wander the streets, try not to get hit on by prostitutes, and find somewhere that looks decent.
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| Condoms in France... because simply pulling one out of your wallet doesn't say enough. |
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| A look down our street. |
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