Tag Archives: Tuesday Travels

Musee du #Louvre Part 1 #TuesdayTravels

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We decided to visit the Louvre on Friday on the assumption that it would be more crowded over the weekend. We took the Metro to the Palais Royale/Musee du Louvre station, which comes out into a mall. We found the Carousel du Louvre entrance at about 9:30AM. To our surprise and delight, there was no line. We had our Museum passes so we didn’t have to buy tickets and the security check was fast.

We found ourselves in the main underground courtyard where we saw the bottom of the pyramid. We also felt overwhelmed by the size of the museum.

Louvre Pyramid

Bottom of Louvre Pyramid

Rebecca wanted to see the Egyptian antiquities, and I mistakenly thought they were in the Denon Wing. We found Egyptian antiquities, but they were from the Greek and Byzantine periods. Still, it was very interesting, and when we wandered over to the Richelieu Wing, we did find some sphinxes and other Egyptian statues.

Eventually we stumbled across the famous Venus de Milo, in all her armless glory. The statue really is magnificent. A crowd surrounded her, the first one we’d seen that morning, since we had decided to skip the Mona Lisa.

Venus de Milo

The famed Venus de Milo

Right after the Mona Lisa, my camera battery died, so I switched to the iPad. Thank goodness I’d brought it with me! The iPad is more cumbersome to use and carry, but it takes great photos, sometimes better than my Nikon!

Next stop was the Roman galleries where we saw an amazing room with a huge mosaic floor and a tall pediment. Through a window, I got a great picture of a courtyard that I think of more as a sculpture garden.

By 11:30 we were tired and hungry, but lost, with no idea of how to find Cafe Richerlieu. After lots of wandering and asking for directions that we only half understood, we finally found the cafe. Since we were early and it wasn’t crowded, we lucked into a table by the window where we had this view. We could see the main ticket offices and the lines were surprisingly short!
louvre courtyard

We were happy to sit and relax over lunch. Rebecca splurged on fois gras and champagne, while I ordered Croque Monsieur, basically an open-face grilled ham and cheese sandwich. The food was delicious, and even though we were stuffed, we ordered dessert, too, including hot chocolate for me. (The French make the best hot chocolate I’ve ever had, basically molten chocolate with whipped cream on the side.) This raspberry dessert was delicious. The little round thing on the top is a raspberry macaron.

raspberry dessert

To be ontinued next week.

Linda

A Mad Dash in the Rain: Paris Latin Quarter #TuesdayTravels

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Rebecca arranged for us to have the services of a Paris greeter to help us get oriented. We were contacted by a nice gentleman names Jean-Jacques who offered to walk us around the Latin Quarter.

walking in the rainSince it was our first full day in Paris, it was raining, and we weren’t familiar with the area, we took a cab to Luxembourg Gardens to meet Jean-Jacques promptly at 9AM. He led us on a mad dash in the rain through the Sorbonne District, an interesting area with lots of older buildings.

Sorbonne

Universites de Paris aka the Sorbonne


In fact, this is one of the oldest sections of the city since this was the area settled by the Romans. We saw two Medieval shop signs–a large key and a tree–representing a locksmith and a woodworker? Lumberyard maybe. The last one had me puzzled so if anyone has any ideas, chime in!

We could see the Pantheon, formerly the Church of Ste. Genevieve, in the distance. We saw some nice courtyards and lots of interesting doorways, including carriageways with large double doors. Jean-Jacques said this was a popular if not respectable section of the city in the 18th century. University areas are usually eclectic.

One of the more interesting places we stopped was the site of a Roman arena, now used as a playing field. We could see the stone bleachers where viewers sat and the caged areas below the bleachers where the wild beasts were kept. Now the cages are used to store folding chairs. Much safer but less interesting.

At 10:30AM we stopped for coffee and to rest our legs and feet. Jean Jacques was a marathon walker and I was often rushing to catch up after stopping to take a photo. Sadly, some of the photos didn’t come out because of rain drops on my camera lens. The rain slacked off while we were having coffee, so the rest of the walk was more pleasant.

After our walk, we took the Metro back to our hotel, the first of many trips, for lunch and a chance to rest out feet. I had salmon in sorrel sauce with basmati rice and it was delicious.

Next week, the Louvre, but watch for my report on the baking class we took after visiting the Latin Quarter. I’ll try to get it up tomorrow or Friday.

Linda