It is 8:05 PM, we've been up since 6:20. The sky is black at that time. Even Paris thinks that is to early to be awake. As the time goes by, we see more light in the courtyard of our apartment building, and the sky becomes a smear of pink.
Our goal for the day: the Louvre museum. We had read online and in our tour books to get there before opening to avoid lines. So as soon as we fed the girls some breakfast (Dan and I had coffee from our French press, but we just ate yesterday's bagette/bread for our breakfast as we walked) we set out onto the streets of Paris for our Saturday adventure.
It was interesting how there was a total lack of hustle bustle on the Streets as we walked. It was Saturday morning, and no one was walking around and the shops were buttoned up tight. (Many shops don't open 'till 10:30 on Saturday, the French people have a mandated 35 hour work week or something like that.) The quiet streets were great for walking. Dan and I could walk quickly without having to dodge other walkers. It took about 12 minutes before we passed our first bakery. It was a nice bakery. They were very professional, their breads were lovely, and popping in there to gather up our bread supply was a delight. We got a bagette for 1.05 Euro, a 4.50 Euro soft loaf that was round and had nuts on it, and Sara chose a muffin. The people who worked there were so nice, we even noted the location on our GPS so we could go back. And that is saying something since there are a lot of bakeries here!
We kept walking. We eventually saw the Louvre. It is huge. We went into the complex through an enormous door way from the side. There was no one else around so we were wondering if that area was open. It was indeed open. We strolled up into the area of the Louvre with the glass pyramid. That's when we saw the line. It was 9:00 and it opened at 9:00. The line was maybe 100 meters long. It snaked out of the glass pyramid and around a bit.
Sara said, "Sorry Mom, there is a line" since she knew we were trying to get there at opening to avoid a long line. I told her that I actually expected a line, even at opening time, but that by getting there at that time we avoided an even longer line.
Dan got in line, while I said, "I'm going to check to see if this is the right line for people with a stroller." The last thing we wanted was to wait in the line and be told that we couldn't get our stroller into the door. I snapped a photo of our stroller and walked over to the guy in charge.
I smiled, showed him the stroller, said "I have two kids in a stroller, is that the right line?"
He said, "go to the front. You do not have to wait."
Great!
I went back to Dan who was in the same spot where I left him (the line hadn't moved) and told him we could skip the line. We were happy. We were given the royal treatment. Everyone from the line were going in through the metal detectors (on the right) and our doors (which were just left of those doors) lead us straight in! We had our own entrance right to the left of the other people!
Then we looked for the elevator. We were inside the glass pyramid at this point. There was a sign that said "the elevator is available by simple request" so I went down the spiral stair case to request the elevator.
Now -- this is the cool part. The elevator is an awesome space-aged platform that rises out of the Louvre ground floor! Sara and I could have walked down the stairs but we wanted to ride on that cool elevator. Dan said, "this is the coolest elevator I've ever seen" We loaded on to it (we were the only ones on it plus the operator) and we made a grand entrance into the Louvre that we will never forget.
We bought tickets and went in. Our first stop was the Mona Lisa.
Getting there was pretty easy. There are signs to the Mona Lisa on many of the walls. (The signs even include a picture of it for easy identification.) I had read something that said one person had to wait 10 minutes to get into the Mona Lisa room and that their tour guide said that was really a short wait. So we expected to get there and line up to enter the room.
When we got there, there was no line. We walked right in. And not only that. We walked right up to her! There were so few people in front of the Mona Lisa that we just got a front row spot to stand and look at her. It was really amazing.
I asked Sara what she thought of it. She said, "it's small" and she is right. Many of the other paintings in the room and in the museum are as large as a wall - or at least a few feet square. The Mona Lisa is small by those standards. But -- it is the Mona Lisa and undeniably special.
I asked Sara "is she smiling?" She said, "Yes Mom" so that is Sara's interpretation of the "Mona Lisa" smile. We got some pictures of us with Mona, looked at it a lot, and then we continued our tour of the museum.
With that block buster done, we picked some other things we wanted to see. My favorite painter is Vermeer (dutch) and the Louvre has 2 of his paintings! It took some finesse to take the elevators through the Louvre (an old King's palace) to get there. But we did. And no one else was looking at the two Vermeers. Lucky for me! I got to stare at them from a foot away - all by myself! Vermeer worked in Delft (where we spent a few weeks last October in the Netherlands/Holland) and I've always loved his work. We have two Vermeer paintings hanging in our dining room that we bought on canvas when we were travling one time. I think his work is just lovely - and he only created a hand full of works so they are all the more special (one of his most famous is the "girl with the pearl earring."
We also saw the Greek statues, oodles of French and Italian art, and oodles of everything else. The Louvre is big. It was better than I remember it. The last time we went there I mainly remember thinking about how big it was - this time I really noticed the ceilings (with paintings and even sculpture), the architecture of the building itself, and Dan and I even remember walking down certain halls together -- all those years ago!
Lunch was around 11:30 I think. Lucky us, the whole meal was 20% off due to eating early. We had a ton of food (we've learned to load up so the kids take good afternoon naps!) - pasta, chicken, mozzarella and tomatoes, and a side salad. It was all so good. We sat in the front so we could watch the hub-bub of the museum as we ate. They had great high chairs for Julia to use.
After lunch we explored the "history of the Louvre" area where you see the base of the old building (it feels like you are underground and you get to see the old rocks and stuff of the old foundation - it is fascinating). Julia was awake for that part (she did have a nice nap after the lunch) and she walked all along the ancient structure as if it were perfectly normal for a baby/toddler to see something so magical. She looked so cute and happy. I was glad she was so happy, since I had actually woken her up from her nap by clunking the stroller into the side of an elevator - and I felt so bad that I woke her up - but the best part was that I got to hold a sleepy baby in my arms while we looked at some jewels - and my jewel (Julia) put her head on my shoulder and snuggled in as I looked at the diamonds sparkle on a royal crown. It was nice.
We took the girls through the grand hall and actually ended up cutting through the Mona Lisa room to leave (we saw Mona Lisa probably 6 different times as we walked around) and by the time we left it was about 2:00 PM and we were all ready for some fresh air.
We stepped out of the Louvre into the Pyramid area and just soaked it all in. The Louvre, the Gardens, the Eiffel Tower in the distance -- we are in Paris!
After talking it over we decided to head to the Pont Neuf area to go on a boat cruise. Walking there was fun, as now there were people strolling around - and we got to blend into the Paris vibe. We got tickets to the boat cruise, stepped on, and it left moments later. We were the last ones on - our timing was perfect. Before we got on I got 2 ice creams for the trip. 1 for Sara and 1 for Julia. Oddly, Julia wasn't interested - so Dan held her ice cream and they both shared it. (Usually Julia likes to hold her own ice cream!) They looked so cute together - Dad/Daughter. Just enjoying the ice cream and cruising the Seine through Paris.
The boat cruise was nice - it looped all around - and we were the only ones inside the boat. Everyone else was up top or out front. We tried sitting there but the girls didn't like it. That worked out nicely as we were so comfortable down there in the glass enclosed boat with out our hair and bodies getting blown by the wind as we cruised. We literally had the whole interior to ourselves - like a private tour. It lasted 1 hour then we got off and walked through the Latin Quarter where Dan got a crepe (with Nutella and banana) and I got a slice of pizza of the day (with zucchini and bacon on it, an odd combination but I guess they figure the zucchini healthiness balances out the bacon - whatever - it was good!)
After some more strolling we went to Luxembourge Garden to see it and also to let Sara/Julia play in the play area. Wow. It is a lovely place. We had just left the Louvre where the art showed pretty things, but this real-life garden trumped it. I mean, there were flowers bursting with color, green green green grass, ornamental planters, statues, and people enjoying them selves everywhre. I've seen pretty gardens - but this one was so pretty. I could barly walk in a straight line since I was so busy looking around. It was like a scene out of a painting - happy people sitting on benches, kids sailing sailboats on a small lake, and strollers taking it all in stride. Lovely.
When we saw the play area in Luxembourg Gardens Sara could barely even breathe. They were amazing. As we got closer we saw you had to pay to enter (2.50/kid, 1.25/adult). The girls loved playing - Sara climbed up a very tall rope pyramid (with Dan watching her) and Julia loved playing in a sandy area with little houses (with me watching her). It was surreally wonderful. After a bit though, we found the French kids to be a bit rough. One boy pushed Julia down (I wanted to push him down!) and then she fell on a slide (and bled). Sara had her own trouble, she ran and fell, hurting her knee. So it was a wonderful place, but a bit crowded, and the other kids were a bit rough. We left. We were glad that we went, but the first 10-15 minutes were the best before things got a bit rough.
We made our way back to the apartment - by walking up one of the shopping streets. No longer was it as quiet as the morning - in fact it was so busy it was a bit less fun. We were glad when we made the final turn onto our street and entered the bliss of our own courtyard. :)
Since then we made dinner, packed a little, and got the girls to bed. We also ate a delicious thing we picked up from "Dalloyau" bakery, which was near Luxemburg Garden.
A great day. We saw the Mona Lisa smile, and many of our own as well.
Quote of the day: (Also above in the text, repeated here since I can't remember any other exact quotes!)
Scenerio: Looking at the Mona Lisa
Me: "Is she smiling?"
Sara: "Yes Mom."
[Who needs to study the Mona Lisa smile when a kid can just plainly see that she is smiling!]
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