Temp: low 57*, high 77*, Wednesday, June 28. We had breakfast this morning right down the street at Café Le Petit Pont, 1 Rue du Petit Pont. This café and the one across the street were really celebrating last night after France won against Spain in the World Cup, and the first thing the waiter asked was were we Spanish. All the waiters had on French soccer shirts. We sat outside and regretted not having brought our jackets because it was cold and windy. We both had cheese omelets, though we ordered ham %26amp; cheese omelets but the waiter-who said he spoke English-evidently didn’t or was still celebrating-because we wound up with cheese omelets instead. They were delicious and huge, so we did not complain. They served mustard with them which I tried on the omelet and it was delicious. I usually put ketchup on scrambled eggs. (I can hear the gasps of disgust now but my mother was from Brooklyn and she said it was a NY thing-or maybe it was just a way to get me to eat eggs when I was little) I ordered hot chocolate to warm me up since I don’t drink coffee (more gasps I suppose) and it was served on a tray with the milk in one pitcher and the chocolate in another, a cup and sugar. It was so good. James had 2 coffees since it was only 15* C and that is quite chilly to Florida people. The meal came to 22.80 euro total. We took the metro to the Louvre station for 2 reasons: one-our legs were still sore from the bike ride and two- I wanted to see the station since I had heard it was so beautiful and it was. We had our museum passes, so after the security line we went right in and to the Denon Wing to see Mona. Again, we seemed to have beaten the crowds as there were only about 2 dozen people there and we could go right up front and see her. As we were on our way up the stairs to see her, we came across the Winged Victory (My pictures of this did not turn out for some reason so if anyone had a good one or two I would love to have a copy). We then backtracked and went to see several rooms of sculptures and then we went into the Apollo Gallery and saw the crystal pieces and jewels. I looked down at my diamonds and asked my hubby why he didn’t get me that 141 caret ring when we got married. The room itself was fabulous. We managed to see many of the French paintings, some Italian 13-17 century paintings. We saw the Egyptian wings and the gorgeous Venus de Milo (This time my pictures turned out-40 years ago they did not). She was in the center of the room and by this time the Louvre was very crowded but you could get up close to her and walk all around her. Then we saw more Egyptian items and things from Iran and Greece and Rome. We got to see a special exhibit of sketches by Hubert Robert, 1733-1908. He was famous for paintings of ruins but these sketches had not been exhibited in a long time. They were really fabulous and I am glad we got to see them. They will be there until Oct. 16.
We stayed a little over 3 hours, maybe 3 ½ hrs. The hardest part was getting out. We kept following the sortie signs but it took 30-45 min. to finally get to an exit. I guess that is why we saw so much-we kept wandering into rooms trying to find the exit.
|||
I can relate to your getting lost in the Louvre. In November I went one evening just to see a few of my favorites, then decided to %26quot;quickly%26quot; see some of the Egyptian wing. I followed the sortie signs and kept getting deeper and deeper into the exhibit.
At one point I was checking out some of the empty sarcophogi in case I was going to have to spend the night among the mummies.
Thank you for your reports, they are bringing back great memories.
|||
When you post the rest of your report, would you please be so kind as to break it into paragraphs? My eyes get tired at night, and I don%26#39;t want to miss anything.
|||
letsleavenow, We must have been in the same spot looking for the exit. I was beginning to think we would have to stay forever.
Underhill, sorry about no paragraphs. My eyes not only get tired at night they are old and tired all the time.
|||
I couldn%26#39;t find my way to the Napoleon apartments. I could see literally see them, but just couldn%26#39;t find the right stairs. It took me nerarly 45 minutes! I thought it was a weary toursit brain thing, but clearly I%26#39;m in good company!
|||
So museum director Jaques Saunière in the DaVinciCode was simply shot by a desparate tourist not able to find his way of the the darn place ! Now that changes the plot into a whole new direction......
|||
SORRY
%26quot;not able to find his way of the the darn place%26quot; should be =
.......not able to find his way out of the darn place.....
|||
Love reading your trip reports! I think that is partly because I%26#39;m also a media specialist from Florida- albeit a retired one after thirty years working in middle schools! We probably sat in the same audiences at some of those FAME or FETC conferences!
Isn%26#39;t it fun to use our research skills to prepare for these trips! I love your sense of adventure, especially about the food- I managed to get my %26quot;signifigant other%26quot; to eat some adventurous things like rabbit etc.- he%26#39;s probably a little braver than most guys! and that was a real accomplishment! Can%26#39;t wait to get back to France! I am reliving it with you!
|||
GitteK, I am probably the only librarian in the world who has not read The DaVinci Code. I guess I am too busy reading 20 Battle of the Books for 4th grade to get time to enjoy an adult book.
Lulutoo, Glad you are enjoying the reports. Thanks for your comments. FAME was fabulous last year.
|||
Mediamama - Hi there! I just wanted to let you know that the reason your husband didn%26#39;t get you that 141 carat diamond ring is because it%26#39;s on hold for ME. As for your not being a coffee drinker, I assume that the people on this forum were more horrified when I wrote that I don%26#39;t drink wine.
|||
-:- Message from TripAdvisor staff -:-
This topic was inactive for 6 months and has been closed to new posts. We hope you'll join the conversation by posting to an open topic or starting a new one.
To review the TripAdvisor Forums Posting Guidelines, please follow this link: http://www.tripadvisor.com/pages/forums_posting_guidelines.html
We remove posts that do not follow our posting guidelines, and we reserve the right to remove any post for any reason.
Removed on: 1:27 am, August 12, 2009
No comments:
Post a Comment