Saturday's plan included my much anticipated trip to the Louvre. I had heard of its ability to overwhelm even the most seasoned museum visitor. This was definitely true. I took a few minutes mapped out works and rooms I wanted to see, grabbed an audio guide (they have a downloadable one for the ipod, but since I hadn't accessed my itunes on my ipod yet, it wouldn't let me without activating blah blah haha) so I forked over the 5 euro it cost for the audioguide. I was really glad I did. The guide is actually a Nintendo G3 (or something like that.. the newest form of a DS is the best way to describe it). It tracks your movements in the museum and can give you room by room instructions on how to get to works that you tell it you want to see. (SOO HELPFUL!) and if you get off track on accident, it promptly tells you that and helps you redirect. That feature alone saved me quite a few times. I spent a little over 4 hours walking around the museum seeing all the big works I wanted from the Northern Renaissance to the Mona Lisa to Napoleon's coronation. By the end I left not because I'd seen everything (on our tour a few days before the guide told us that its been calculated that it would take someone I think 3 months straight touring for 24/7 only stopping for 9 seconds at each work), I left because I was "museumed out" and needed to sit.
I was also in need of a new pair of sunglasses since I'd broken mine beyond repair the previous day leaving Versailles. I metroed to Gare St. Lazare (train station, metro, and mall all in 1). Here I found a sunglasses shop where I was able to find an excuse to do some shopping in Paris. After an interesting interaction with the clerks who spoke no English, and me no French we were able to find a pair similar to the one I broke. :) I then headed to Starbucks to grab and iced coffee and sit. This starbucks experience was rather comical as I ordered a caramel macchiato 1/2 caf (explained that) and he said ok! I then received 2 cups at the counter... 1 with caffeine and 1 without.. How that happens I'm not sure, but whatever. I took both, grabbed a pastry and then headed into the mall to sit by the piano. There is a piano that has a sign that say something to the effect of "free to play" and people took turns playing and singing beautiful songs for the mall. It is a 4 story mall, and the piano is on the top story in an open area so the sound carries beautifully. It was a fun way to spend the afternoon.
I left from there to meet up with the girls for dinner in Montemarte. We met across from the Moulin Rouge. There is a grate there with cool air from the metro blowing up through it. Women of all ages jumped up on it. Some in dresses (think Marilyn Monroe's dress) and some not. I was in a dress, so I did NOT venture up. Although one man asked me if I would so he could take my picture. umm NO! was my answer. We had added 2 more Aussies to our little international travel group. We grabbed dinner at a cute little cafe with a nice view of that part of the city. I had the skirt steak with fries and a creme brulee. It was delicious! We then meandered around Montemarte looking at Picasso's apartment, Van Gogh's apartment, the windmill in Montemarte and a few other sights. We parted way around 9:30. Three of us were leaving the next day so we said our goodbyes and took pictures together. I headed over to Notre Dame to see if I could climb the towers before it closed, but it was closed when I got there. Instead I took pictures as the sun set and watched street performers dance and play with fire. Interesting show. While there is NO accuracy in the disney movie to the original intent of Hugo's book, the scene did make me think of the gypsies that performed in the street in the movie.
I came back, packed up and worked on planning my exit strategy for trains out of Paris and back to Germany.
the courtyard of the Louvre
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