We awoke the next morning to construction work. When we looked out the massive windows of our apartment, we saw scaffolding set up on our side of the building... awesome. I remembered something that Phillipe, our tour guide, had told us. Paris is a city that loves its history so much that a lot of buildings are registered with the historical society as artifacts and landmarks. If any work is to be done it is a strenuous process that involves hammers and chisels.
Anyway, it woke us up! So we planned out our day, check out the Eiffel Tower then head on over to the Rodin Musuem which is in the vicinity. So we were off via metro!
We got off the metro and just like with the Notre Dame, were trying to find it then we turned a corner and boom, you can't miss something like the Eiffel Tower. There is a massive park in front of it so we walked through and approached it slowly. Some one was nice enough to take our picture. The only bummer was the weather.. but I wasn't letting mother nature ruin my trip! We walked closer and I couldn't believe how big that thing actually is!
We sat on a park bench marveling on this giant engineering wonder. At that time we noticed there were tons of school field trips happening. I noticed a group of little French kids giggling and playing around. Hearing little kids speak French is just about the most adorable thing I have ever come across in my entire life.
Afterwards we were going to actually go climb the Eiffel tower but the wait was super crazy and we decided to save it for another day. We then made our way over to the Musee' Rodin. While walking Tim's stomach started rumbling and we just so happen to pass a bakery so we grabbed a few quiches and chococlate eclaire's to go. We stopped in a park and chowed down. That quiche was the best damn quiche I have ever had. Tim immediatley went for the eclair after he finished his quiche, but I saved mine for later. Although based on his reaction to the eclair it was pretty darn good as well.
With our belly's full we went to get some culture at Musee' Rodin. The garden of the musuem is a big feature, so we were very excited that the weather got really nice just when we got there! The first thing we saw when we got there was what is perhaps Rodin's most famous work, the Thinker. Rodin's Thinker seems as if he has all of the world's problems on his mind all at once. Tim mentioned that Rodin seemed to capture him thinking with every single muscle in his body. That was after we looked at it from behind and I mentioned he looks like he could use a massage. The rest of the museum was simply stunning featuring a fountain and of course more sculptures! Even if you are not an art lover, the Musee' Rodin is a Paris attraction I highly recommend.
After that we need to take a break so we went back to the apartment and took a little cat nap
Break up the day! I went on this trip wanted to see as much as humanly possible! Your body can only take so much so we had a nice little routine going, we'd do something in the morning, take a break at the apartment then do another round of things. It was good because it helped prevent us from getting burnt out.
So we had our little refresher nap then we decided to head out to the Lourve for the second half of our day. The day we chose to do the Louvre turned out to be ideal because it was Friday! I know what you are thinking, but everyone likes to get down on Friday, but our tour guide Phillipe gave us a good tip. He said that the Louvre closes late on Fridays so going there later in the day is beneficial because all those pesky tourists are gone by then. Also just F.Y.I. this place also huge, impressive and amazing like everything else we had seen in France up to that point. We entered through the iconic Pyramid entrance which was interesting modern architecture that clashed with the classical look of the palace. Once we got in there, there was little to no wait. We got tickets right away. The ticket guy asked if any of us were under 26 (which I still am) and I got in for free! Wooo!
We did some exploring in one of the galleries and we learned it is very easy to get lost for days in this place! One thing that kind of got annoying, was that the layout of the building. Once we reached the end of a gallery the only exit was to walk right back through everything we had just seen. We still saw some cool stuff like the Napoleon apartments and for a small guy he was certainly living large (hehe). We also looked at some sculptures which are probably my favorite things to look at. I love the ties to Greek myths and the symbolism hidden in each piece. Also this one statue looks like my friend Joe Lentini.
After getting lost for a bit we entered the wing housing all of the famous art, Denon. Walking there we came to a stair case where I saw a beautiful work called Winged Victory. I remember studying it when I took an art history class, I always thought it was striking. Although missing a head and limbs the presence of a victorious Nike is still present and you get to behold her and all of her glory! Moving on we went into another gallery and saw good ol' Mona Lisa herself. It was tiny and to be honest not all that impressive, but hey I can say that I have seen it in person. Across from Mona, is a gigantic epic painting that is way more interesting but no museum patrons are noticing (which sadly I forgot to take a picture of!) Maybe that's what Mona is smiling about, she just like, "you idiots I'm just a woman sitting here behind two inches of bullet proof glass." We saw some more classical works (pictured below) including the Venus de Milo.
After the Louvre our stomachs were ready for some serious dinner and we needed it fast! We found a cafe not too far from the Museum and we ate as the sun was going down. It really through us off because it was really late! We had no idea that it doesn't get dark until like 10:30. Anyway, we had an amazing meal and finished it off with creme brulee and espresso. The creme bruelee was really good but the espresso was really bitter. I originally wondered why the waiter gave me so much sugar, I learned that the hard way. With the creme brule eaten, my bitter espresso drunk we walked around a bit and got lost on the Paris streets.
Let me just clarify that we didn't really get lost, I meant in a romantic kind of way. We walked the streets. We ended up back over by the river Siene and Ponte Neuf. As beautiful as these landmarks are in the day time, they are even more intriguing while lit up. We got some great views and we even noticed the Eiffel Tower in the background. Then it started raining again so we grabbed the metro back to the apartment.
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