Today starts the same as yesterday, with me being up by 6:30 am writing up the blog from the previous day before. I wish I had enough time the night before do to this, but processing the pictures then dropping them in takes up my pre-bedtime slot, then I run out of time to write about the day. I finish up the blog then head across the street to get coffee. I probably do that in the incorrect order, come to think of it.
We hit the day and a hot, crowded subway greets us again. I’m happy this doesn’t provide the kids with reason to complain, which is something they certainly would have done a year or 2 ago. We get off and instead of connecting to the 6 line, we walk the rest of the way to the Catacombs of Paris in search of crêpes. We find none and end up at a boulangerie again.
We arrive to a huge line and debate if we should stay or not. D really wants to do this but we need to do the math of the stated limit of 200 people per hour that they let in. After a few minutes I count and come up with about 300. We ride it out a little and the line moves, and we decide to stay. If we had an alternate destination we might have done that but we didn’t, and even if we did there would likely be a line there too.
After 2 hours, we finally get in around 12:30. The wait was a bit much, but in the end the kids didn’t actually complain at all. I guess they’re growing up. The day really couldn’t have been less comfortable with the heat, but they all were content to ride it out. They had their phones and maybe the downtime was what they needed.
In the end I think it was worth the wait, because this is such a unique experience I haven’t seen anywhere else. There are miles & miles of tunnels down here, which are the result of mining, in an effort to build the structures all over the city. Eventually they were then used to store the bones from cemeteries across the city. There’s a lot more to it than that but this gives you the general idea.
There’s not too much more to know than that. It’s a neat/cool/creepy experience which is worth checking out if you come here. As an added bonus, it’s always about 60 degrees underground.
After we leave the building we manage to find our crêpe, which is fine and all. I personally don’t think these are any better than the ones D makes at home. I mean, the ingredients are pretty basic for a plan one. After that we find a lunch stop right away, which is more or less forgettable. It was some pub on the corner which I am unable to find on the map, and is not worth going out of the way for.
We then embark on our long walk to the Louvre.
The walk is hot, no surprise there. But we stumble upon the Luxembourg Gardens which I would classify as the pleasant surprise of the day. The gardens provide a nice respite from the pavement of the city as well as nice visual fodder for our brains. It’s quite lovely and enjoyable and of course has zero to do with the country of Luxembourg and everything to do with the gluttony that was classic France. But what remains is enjoyable today, so I won’t hold it against them.
At the end of the walk we are left with nothing but pavement and cement and the heat is brutal, as the air is stagnant in this part of the city. Luckily we are almost there and we make it to the museum just before 4:00, which is when our timed ticket is for.
We get into the innards of the museum and of course find more humanity, but in the end the line is not that long and we get in pretty quickly. Despite being warned there is no AC, there actually is a little bit, and we begin to cool off to an extent.
The Louvre of course is the most visited museum in the world, and if you’re in Paris you really should try to go. I really had no idea about any of the history here, and today ended up being a bit of a lesson in that regard. It was originally a castle then it became home to the French kings then Napoleon took it over in his everlasting quest to have the world remodeled in his own image. All things I did not know until today.
The Venus de Milo is perhaps the most famous piece here after the Mona Lisa, though I’m the wrong person to assess this. I have no real context for the history of anything and usually one piece looks more or less the same as the next. I can take a picture of anything though.
The Sleeping Hermaphrodites was another item we were supposed to see so we did. Zac and I made this detour to take another picture.
The Great Sphinx of Tanis was on the list of things to find but we didn’t specifically look for it. We just turned the corner and there it was. I took the picture thinking it was cool then later learned I was supposed to take the picture. I guess that makes me something or other.
The remnants of the Louvre Castle is neat and one of the things I found most fascinating about the whole experience. This was when the hints of the building’s past started to come into focus. I had no idea about anything, so this was especially cool. The castle seen here has been left in place where it was originally built. Each individual block has the mark of the builder who placed it, which is how they got paid later.
A model of the Louvre Abu Dhabi is a neat find as well.
The Winged Victory of Samothrace was the target of many photographers and as such, I did my best to do the same. I am sure this place would be better with a guided tour but you need to dial back the spending at some point.
The Mona Lisa is another must-see for obvious reasons. Since I am not an art connoisseur I can’t pretend to understand why this is considered a masterpiece but I am also not oblivious to the historical and cultural significance of something like this. So we went and took he picture just like everyone else.
We then visited Napoleon’s apartments, which were his “small” apartments as he lived in Versailles full-time. And it quickly becomes apparent that he was a bit of an opulent prick. The word ostentatious comes to mind when looking at how he lived. But this also hints at more of the history here which is the takeaway. Also, I think it’s pretty obvious that the man was afraid of the dark. Or maybe he had really poor eyesight.
D really wanted to see this and I think I’m with her in saying that this stuff is far more interesting than the paintings in any of these places. We’ve traveled enough now that the paintings all start to look the same to both of us. You also start to realize that none of these artists has a lack of material out there. The apartments are unique, for sure, and makes the experience itself also unique.
At the end of this endeavor my feet are beyond dead. They have been since 11:00 am and the 3 days of walking (D’s Apple Watch says we walked like 8, 10, and 8 miles the first 3 days) is adding up. Plus I think my sneakers are about done for. So they feel like they have spent a few hours being run over by a truck.
We take the subway home, pick up dinner at Carrefour and the boulangerie, then destroy all the food before bed. Thus concludes the 3rd and last full day we will be in Paris. Tomorrow we will pack up and spend a little time in the city, then hop on a train to London where phase 2 of the vacation begins. We spend time right before bed lining that up.
Traveling Normandy 