Paris, France – 05/13 – 05/14

(Michelle) On Sunday, TJ went to the war museum and I went to the D’Orsay, which houses art more recent that those pieces at the Louvre. Before I got to D’Orsay, I took a nice stroll down the Champs Elysees and ended up in the Tuileries park. I thought about getting a crepe as a snack, but while I was looking at a café menu, I was hit on for the first time on our trip. A Frenchman introduced himself to me and asked to buy me a drink at the café. I politely declined and left without a crepe. (Single girls… he wasn’t bad looking, about our age… so perhaps a solo trip to Paris is not a bad idea??? – Although, it did sort of remind me of Eddie Murphy “What’s a beautiful girl like you doing alone in the Isle of love?”). The museum was quite nice, with a large collection of Renoir, Monet, Van Gogh and Degas. There were also a lot of Cezanne, but he seems to have a lot of still lives, and as much as my 8th grade humanities class drilled into me what an important role the still life is in art history, and just can’t get into fruit on a table. For supper, we headed to a new area to look for another restaurant in our guide. We ended up on the street with all the porn shops and strip clubs. Ooops. Fortunately, it was still light out, so it didn’t feel too seedy. On Monday, we went to the Louvre. That place is crazy busy and HUGE. You can get the regular audio guide for 5 euro, or the DAVINCI CODE audio guide for 10 euro. There was a long line for this cheesy expensive version, but I guess the Louvre is allowed to make money off Hollywood like everyone else. I am a little freaked out by the Mona Lisa now though… I felt fine going into the museum and immediately after trying to stare down the Mona, I walked away with a horrible headache that would not go away. If there is one thing I can say about the Lourve, is that hands down, they have got to have the largest collection of random not so famous artists that have painted Mary and Jesus. Perhaps I should have known this, but apparently, Mary always wears blue and red.
We thought we were being smart by waiting out the “rush” on the metro after the Louvre closed by eating in the food court outside the Louvre. This was a huge mistake. This was by far the worst food we have had on this trip so far. Gross.

(TJ) Yes I went to another war Museum; it was quite interesting to see the exhibits on WW1 and WW2 from the French perspective. It was however much more difficult to follow since about a ¼ of the artifacts were translated to English, well it is France. Still it was a good museum however with very little translation. Napoleon’s tomb is also at the museum and is by all means a cathedral. His sarcophogis looked to be a made out of a giant piece of stone (granite?); we’re talking 15’ long 8’ wide and 12’ tall in the center of a highly gilded rotunda. Also in the same tomb in side chapels are his wife Josephine, Marshall Fock of WW1 and some other famous French generals. This was second visit to the Louvre, the last time I think that we walked it in about 3 hours. Let’s just say that this place probably would take a couple of days to see the full collections. We got the audio guides this time which were helpful in enlightening us to the history and style of some of the works of art that we saw. I think that I enjoyed the sculptures made of marble more than the paintings but then again I think we probably saw less then half of the paintings. Also let me just say that had I been the one hit on in the park by some young Parisian temptress and told Michelle about it, I would have been beaten and my body dumped in the Seine. Guess that’s something to keep in my back pocket when it happens in another country.

(Michelle) True dat. TJ fortunately has not spoken of any incidences of other women on this trip, so he lives another day.