Monday morning, I headed out on my own for my first big day in the city shortly after Shawn left for work After having a bit of trouble locating a metro station that had a counter manned with someone to sell you a weekly pass (my rotten sense of direction landed me at Pere Lachaise station instead of Ménilmontant!), I arrived at the Louvre around 10:30 AM. I saw the famous inverted glass pyramid in the lobby of where you enter from the metro. Everything you hear about how huge this place is is true – even with a map, very hard to get around, it is set up in a big square – the middle of the bldg is hollow, so you cannot cut through anywhere, so once you are in an exhibit, you have to go all the way through it to the end. Not a problem when you are in one you want to see, but if you have to cross through one that you had not planned on taking the time to look at, or one you’ve already been through, you are stuck maneuvering through it & all of the people in it!
I started at the beginning and saw the ancient ruins that the museum was built around – you are underground & everything is dimly lit. I then wanted to start out with the Egyptian exhibit, but ended up in the Objet’s d’art, which was so interesting (& long!) that I took the time to look at everything. Lots of stuff behind glass – beautiful & intricate glassware, silver, jewelry and also tapestries & furniture. I had to keep reminding myself to look up, as there are so many paintings on the ceilings too! The Louis XV’s apartments were breathtaking! I ended up in a section with lots of marble statues at one point & then accidentally stumbled along where they keep Venus de Milot, which was swarmed with tourists taking pictures, I managed to get one clear shot. I finally located the Egyptian exhibit and went through most of it, by the end I was getting really hungry & tired, as it was almost 2pm!
I had visions of lunching on one of the terrasses of the Louvre that I had heard about, so I located the one on the 2nd floor near Objets d’art – the lineup seemed pretty long, & after looking at the prices on the menu (I think cheapest meal was over 12EUR, and was a salad or something!), I got discouraged & looked elsewhere. Found another café with a terrace with less of a line, but it was still taking too long for my taste (I didn’t want to waste precious time waiting in line, then waiting for food, then bill) & I figured prices would be similar to the last place I saw), I went to check out the cafeteria. The hot meals didn’t look very appetizing (looked & smelled burned!), so I finally settled on getting a sandwich at a stand in one of the hallways (for 5EUR80 – it broke my heart!) – these were just packaged sandwiches (canteen-style) but at least they had interesting fillings like grilled veggies & feta. I was still hungry after & was in need of reviving, so I found a coffee stand & ordered a café au lait & a white chocolate chunk cookie at reasonable prices – both were delicious & satisfying.
I made my way back to the Egyptian exhibit so I could continue the 2nd half of it on one floor higher. It was more of the same & was getting a little tedious, so I located one of the paintings wings & followed signs to the Mona Lisa (even though I had planned to wait to see it with Shawn on Wed.nite!). Just from the swarms, you know you’ve found it. It is highly overrated, and even though I expected it to be small & not very visible, it was still a further disappointment! You end up being so focused on just getting through the crowd to snap a few pics (it is hung so low on the wall & it totally behind glass), that you don’t really get to savour the moment or the beauty of the work. I had been planning on leaving around 6:00 pm to meet Shawn back at his apt. for 6:30, but by a bit after 5pm, I really had had enough, so I went up the escalator to the street level entrance & admired the pyramid & all of the huge exhibit wings from the outside, sat by the fountain & read my book until it was time to go.
We got a late start to heading out for dinner, by the time we downloaded & looked at my museum pics, changed & decided where to go. We headed back to the Bastille area & after looking at all of our options, we settled on a reasonably priced Cuban resto called Havanita. Really nice décor & atmosphere. We hurried to order drinks before happy hour (7-9pm) was over as it was 8:50 – Shawn ordered a beer & I had to have a mojito since we were in a Cuban place with so much rum available! I ordered a daurade (red snapper) en papillote & Shawn ordered some type of cajun chicken dish served with fried bananas. The waitress had me open the foil when I got my fish to check it for doneness & it looked perfect – there were tons of caramelized onions & sliced carrots at the bottom of it & the sauce was delicious! What was weird was the woman next to me ordered the same thing & she sent it back three times saying it wasn’t done enough! Shawn & I splurged & shared a rum cake for dessert, it was sooo soaked in rum, it was almost too strong & we expected to feel buzzed afterwards! We ended up being charged full price for the drinks, the waitress claiming that the computer automatically charges appropriately & that the order must have gone in after 9pm. We couldn’t really argue so we just accepted & paid.
Checking my spreadsheet of the week's activities!
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