I haven’t bothered with an alarm. My body’s decided that 5 am is the time to wake up and there will be no sleeping in. Not surprising, given that my brain is buzzing with both the previous day’s adventures and the new day’s possibilities.
Yesterday I felt a little flat, probably the jet lag. Which was reflected in my very boring blog post.. apologies.
But I started today with a surge of energy and less trepidation. Getting myself successfully to the Louvre and Place de la Concorde, and everywhere in between, and then back again to the hotel yesterday had injected me with confidence. So it was with a skip in my stride that I set off on a cool Saturday morning to Gare Saint-Lazare, just a brief stop at Costa’s for a cafe moccha (Mochaccino) and pain au chocolat (chocolate croissant).
At 9 am on a Saturday morning, the streets and terminal tunnels are much quieter. Free trains again today, again due to pollution. If Christchurch wants more people using public transport they should instigate car-less days again and make the buses free. Not that I’d be willing to forgo my workday morning carpool karaoke with Adele, but its still a great concept.
This time I came out of the Metro and took different route, which took me to a side entrance to the Louvre. At all the main attractions you’re put through airport-level security. Bags and pocket miscellany go through one scanner, while you walk through another. The people who man these are no-nonsense. Your smiley “Bonjour!” is totally wasted on them. They just want you to move your ass and pick up your shit post-haste on the other side. One guy got me to open my jacket – no, dude, thats not C4 I’ve got wrapped around my waist, thats years of no exercise and unhealthy eating. He looked seriously disappointed.
So it is, that after several down-escalators later, I arrived back in the Louvre’s concourse. It had just gone 10 am and was filling with clusters of Asian tourists already.
I head straight to the Louvre’s Cloakroom. Yesterday I made the mistake of keeping my coat and camera bag with me. Even though its chilly outside, they heat these places for comfort. So lugging a polar fleece and 5 kg camera sling for two hours can feel like a day-long workout with Bear Grylls. Wasn’t going to make that mistake twice. Thus, my first tip of the day:
Tip: The Louvre Cloakroom looks like a bank vault with various sized lockers. No one is going to handle your stuff, which is very reassuring if you’re carry a few thousand dollars worth of camera gear. You just select a locker, shove your stuff in, then press in a four digit code of your choice, and then the button with a key symbol. Voie la!
A few of my favourite things
I’m back in the Egyptian Antiquities section again. This time I photographed all those tiny things I told you about yesterday. I mean the big things are impressive, just for the sheer energy it must have taken to move them around. But I’m totally fascinated with the artistry and hours of work some of the tiny items would have required.
I love the signet rings with their tiny hieroglyphics. I romanticise about the wearer, imagining the engraving spells the name of someone they love. The tiny gold amulets, carved in the likeness of animals and Gods, I imagine hung on Egyptian charm bracelets. And wonder how many slaves it took to dust all those enamel and alabaster nick-nacks. And boy, did they love those cats!
Don’t trust Parisian signage
By lunchtime I was ready to say goodbye to the Louvre and head to the Musee d’Orsay. Being a balmy, December day, the plaza around the Louvre was packed with residents and tourists. I decided to walk to the Musee d’Orsay, located across and further down the Seine. It sounded simple enough, but here’s my second tip of the day:
Tip: Pee before leaving the previous attraction! Yes, even if you have to waste time standing in the lady-queue. Seriously. Here’s why – it may look like a short, clearly marked walk to the next attraction. But, as luck always has it, its not. It’s wrongly signposted and will send you half way down a street, which you have to double back on. Which means it takes you twice as long to find the entrance. So… pee before leaving the previous attraction. You’ll thank me later.
When I finally did find the entrance to the Musee d’Orsay I had no time to admire the huge bronze statues outside, to appreciate the express entry of my Paris Museum Pass, to stand in awe at the majesty of the view from the first floor, or ooh and ahh at the huge ornate railway clock. I was hungry, I was tired, I had a face like thunder, and I Needed. To. PEE!
Anyway… once that was done. I took the elevator to level 5 (no way was I taking the stairs *grump*) and found the cafe. Its located behind one of the museum’s two enormous tower clock faces. Mercifully, I was quickly seated and, with bilingual menu in hand, I quickly ordered a cafe moccha (second one of the day), a pineapple juice, and the chicken pie.
I’ve gotten competent at ordering in French now… well, to say that I point at each of the desired items and mutter the one French word I’m familiar with, butchering their beautiful language in the process.
The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering through the level 5 Impressionist exhibition, which is very impressive. They have many seminal works from Monet, Cezanne, Degas, Rodin, and Manet. Several of which I had studied at high school.
Standing there I realised that Monet had painted Gare Saint-Lazare at the turn of the 18/19th century, the very station I’d walked through that morning. And I rediscovered my love of his paintings of early morning, smog-filled Paris, the Notre Dame floating out of the choking mist, having now stood in front of the real thing two years ago.
At the end of that gallery you’ll find the second of the two huge railway clocks. A great place to not only take a selfie with the Paris skyline in the background, you can also take a load off on one of two huge round leather seats that hug you!
I then headed down to level 2 and wandered through the sculpture gallery. The museum has some awe inspiring examples:
It’s looking a lot like Christmas
By about 2.30 pm I’d had enough of museums, so I jumped on the Metro again and headed back to my neighbourhood, this time getting off the train at Opera. I made my way through crowds of Saturday Christmas shoppers and muscled my way into Galeries Lafayette – Paris’ largest shopping mall. At the heart of the 7-storey building is a huge Victorian glass atrium in which each year they erect an enormous Christmas Tree.
You can take the escalators all the way up to the top of the building, to its outside terraces. Here I found people gathered, taking photos of Paris’ skyline as the winter sun began to descend. The smog was so thick it created a sepia atmosphere, reminiscent of Monet’s paintings I’d seen earlier in the day.
Postscript: I’m writing these blog posts first thing in the morning, the day after. It takes around 2-3 hours to process all the photos from the previous day, write the blog, and compile it together. It took longer this morning because I accidentally hit “undo” and lost a bunch of written content. You ask, why don’t I write it at the end of that day? Well, because I’m up at 5 am, so I’m just too knackered to do that. However, I throughout the day jot down notes in my phone which serves to remind me the next day what I wanted to blog about. Anyway, I hope you are enjoying it!
sidalscapes 