Paris - Day 2

Breakfast consisted of warm croissants, yoghurt, toasted bread with Nutella, mini pork sausages, bacon, scrambled eggs and hot cocoa. I need all the energy necessary for more walking today!

First agenda for today is Musee du Louvre to catch up with Mona Lisa and ask her whether she is really a dude as some has claimed, and find out, really, what is behind that demure smile of hers that has kept the world guessing and speculating for almost 500 years.

Yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised when the tour guide handed me a parcel and said, "I heard you wanted to visit the Louvre so I got you some tickets!" Hurrah! She also advised us to enter via the underground entrance at Carrousel du Louvre instead of via the pyramid as the queue would be shorter. So armed with good advise, we walked to the nearest metro station, bought ourselves a carnet (bunch of 10 single ride tickets) of tickets for 12 Euro and traveled 15 minutes on the metro to the world's most visited art museum.

The Louvre Palace and Pyramid

I read that the metro in Paris is one of the oldest ever built, which explains why it appears fairly old school, with a lever that you have to turn to open the doors. It is not air conditioned, merely relying on the fresh summer breeze for ventilation. I was not complaining for I was busy feasting my eyes on all the beautiful Parisians! Everyone looked as though they have just finished a photo shoot for they are immaculately spruced up and even though what they have thrown on is fairly casual but it just looks so classy!

And by golly, the Musee du Louvre is seriously HUGE. Wait, it is huger than huge. It is the huge of huge. So huge that it makes huge looks small. So immensely huge that even after 4 hours of random walking from room to room and floor to floor and wing to wing and my eyes went blind from taking in all the sculptures, paintings, carvings, weavings, wood works and what nots, I am sure that I have probably only covered 30-40% of this magnificent place.

I'll readily admit that I am not much of an art enthusiast and my knowledge of art is pitiful but it does feel good to be able to be in close proximity and to witness for myself some of the great works of art that I have briefly read about. The Seated Scribe, Venus de Milo, The Lacemaker, Winged Victory, Haemaphrodite and of course, The Mona Lisa.

Mona Lisa was too shy to answer my questions and merely smiled at me

After lunch at a nearby cafe, and where I had a blonde moment in my head, we walked to the Tuileries Garden and witnessed people feeding pigeons, blowing bubbles in the air, sunbathing by the fountain and drinking beer at the garden cafes.

OK OK, I'm sure you were already distracted when I mentioned about the blonde moment I had in my head and would want to know what it is, right? Who cares about pigeons and bubbles, right? 

Fine. 

When I was waiting for my food, I looked around the cafe and noticed that almost every plate of food has fries as a side dish. I was about to make a comment to D and E when I managed to stop myself before I made a fool of myself. I almost said, "Wah, the French really like ........ *light bulb moment* French fries huh?"

So there you have it, not one of my proudest moments in life. Not the last either I'm sure. Hahahaha!


Cafes lining Jardin du Tuileries

From the gardens, we walked pass The Concorde and The Madeleine towards the Les Invalides that holds a hospital, war veteran retirement home and a military museum. When we arrived at the gates, we saw a troop of soldiers in full garb marching into the building and we followed suit. Much to our surprise there is some sort of ceremony going on and there were at least 100 soldiers lined up in several groups moving around in a rehearsed formation. We stood by and watched for about 15-20 minutes and poked our heads inside Saint Louis des Invalides and Napoleon's tomb before scurrying off as we have to be back at the hotel to freshen up and wait for our ride to the Moulin Rouge!


A battalion of soldiers attending a military ceremony at Les Invalides


As usual, when you are in a hurry, you are almost guaranteed to lose your way. We walked in a few circles trying to find a Metro station for the signs to the metro is really obscure! Thankfully we found it soon enough and had just enough time to get ready for the show.


Napoleon's Tomb just beside Les Invalides


The drive there took an hour due to a horrid traffic jam in the city but I took it as an opportunity to see more of Paris. There was even a point when the car stopped for a pretty long time and I was watching a fireman put some hoses together and I was trying to capture a picture of him at work. A passerby noticed that I was taking a photo and stopped for me to do so and then gave me the thumbs up when he saw that I was done with my picture taking. Too cute!

The passerby I mean.

Oh, and yes, the fireman too *grin*

Anyway, the show that we went to see is called Feerie and we had to dress up. Both E and myself wore a simple black dress and D looked pretty dashing in a tie and tailored jacket. Our package came with dinner and half a bottle of champagne per person. 

The performances were really good! There were about 80 cabaret dancers with sequined dresses and feather boas and elaborate head gears dancing and prancing around on stage with little left for the imagination. No wonder we were not able to bring cameras into the hall. I actually had my small automatic Sony camera with me but decided to be law abiding and not snap any illegal photos. The 1.5 hour performance was so good that I forgot what I had for dinner! I recall there were some pan seared scallops and perhaps a fish dish and maybe some strawberry mousse. 

I would definitely recommend this to anyone who is interested although I have to agree that the ticket prices are rather steep.

The REAL Moulin Rouge!


p.s. This trip was made in mid-June 2011

11/07/2011 08:14:00 PM | Labels: |

 

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