Paris - part III

13.04 entry

This morning, I woke up and had breakfast with my hostel roommates and exchanged contact info - so begins my collection of worldly connections!

Today was my museum day. I took the Metro to l'Arc de Triomphe and circumnavigated it while trying to figure out how to get across the 400 lanes of traffic between the metro stop and the actual monument. By the time I actually found the entrance (there's a path below the roadway - who would have thought?), I just wanted to get on with my day. Which was good because admission was something like 10€, and I was already planning on blowing the day's budget on seeing Musee d'Orsay and the Louvre. Which I promptly did.

From l'Arc de Triomphe I walked down the Champs Élysées, which is actually a lot like Fifth Ave in New York. I went into an H&M, partially out of curiosity and partially out of interest in buying something more fashionable than the 2 pairs of pants and 6 shirts I had brought with me. No such luck there, but I was shocked (for some reason) to discover that the men's section is TWICE the size of the women's section. Crazy!

On the bridge in front of the Grand Palais, I saw a group of protestors who were petitioning the French government to protect a French-Vietnamese blogger who is being imprisoned in Vietnam for his views on Vietnamese democracy. At least, that's what I was able to gather from the flyer they were handing out. Anyway, it was really interesting to see how the French police handle acts of protest - with riot shields and by sending twice as many troops as protestors to the scene. Good times!

The line for Musee d'Orsay was a little ridiculous, but it actually moved fairly quickly. There was an American couple standing behind me in the beginning who didn't make it past the second turn of the line. The woman's parting monologue went something like this:
"Okay, I think that, like, we should just go home and get tickets in advance for tomorrow. I can take our coats to that tailor and you can, like, go to the grocery store and pick up some diet Coke." Classy.

Musee d'Orsay had a special Mahler exhibit, which was obviously fabulous. It featured his Fourth Symphony, which I didn't know terribly well.... until now. They had the manuscript laid out so that it was surrounding the room, and a recording of the London Symphony was playing in the background. As the recording went on, each page of the manuscript lit up so that you could follow along. Not that anyone did. Except for me. Thirty-five or however many minutes of score study in Musee d'Orsay.... Mmmmm. It was great, until LITERALLY three pages before the end, an announcement blared over the loudspeaker to beware of pickpockets. In five languages. So, sadly, I missed the end of the symphony. Such is my life.

The rest of the museum was pretty sweet, too. They had an unfortunately small Van Gough collection, but they had some of his works I had never seen before. I also saw some Monet and Renoir, and an exhibit featuring faces done in pastels. 2 1/2 hours later, I felt like I had gotten my fill of that museum.

And then there was the Louvre. I knew not to expect to see the whole thing, but I don't think I was quite ready for the sheer magnitude, as well as the exceedingly inefficient layout of the museum.

My experience at the Louvre began with my pocket knife being confiscated. Damn.

Highlights of the Louvre:
-saw the Mona Lisa.... I guess it was worth it? I don't know, all the replicas are pretty good, plus it was MOBBED by people. I think I might have taken more photos of the crowds than I did of the actual painting.
-also saw the Venus de Milo, Horses of Marly, the Captive, and other famous things
-the one famous thing I saw that I thought was the most interesting was actually the one thing that wasn't mobbed by tourists (maybe that's why I liked it so much?) - the Code of Hammurabi. My camera battery lasted just long enough to take an adequate number of photos of that, and then it pretty promptly died. C'est la vie.
-ugly baby Jesuses. This is a concept that was introduced to me by my dear friend Olivia, and I unfortunately can't describe its origins as well as she can. Basically, a lot of Renaissace artists painted nativity scenes that feature baby Jesuses that are horrifyingly ugly. I took plenty of pictures, don't worry.

After a full day (6 hours!) of museum wandering, I headed back to my hostel to eat the rest of the cheese I've been accumulating. I stopped at a bakery on my way back to get a baguette and a chocolate pastry, which were both delicious. I also bought a carrot at the market and ate the last of the bananas I bought the other day. Also, a single-serve bottle of wine I bought last night for €1.49. Win.

After my yummy, yummy dinner, I booked my hostels in Barcelona! I'll be there from the 27th-29th, leaving on the 30th for Berlin :-)

Tomorrow is my last day in Paris, then off to Florence!