Paris - Day 4 (To each his own!)
(This is being posted by Allan because Steve is napping blissfully on the couch...it's 6:30 PM)
Today we got up around 8:00 after a lovely night's sleep. Peter and Ryan went out early and got our morning pastries. We were out the door around 10:30; that is Peter, Steve, and myself. Ryan, Bill, and Steve C. all decided to go their separate ways today - though we all ended up at the Louvre at some point during the day, all but Ryan that is. We walked down to the Metro and hopped on a train to Gare Du Nord to pick up our train tickets for London and Amsterdam. Poor Steve waited in several different lines to get the tickets because none of our bankcards seem to work in any of these Parisian self-service ticket machines (for trains or tickets to Disneyland or the Louvre or...). Apparently its because we poor Americans have those stupid and backward cards with a magnetic stripe instead of the fabulous new "smart cards" with a built-in microchip. :P As long as we can get cash out of the bank machines I'm happy :-))
After spending much too long in the train station (lovely light airy building) we hopped on another Metro to the Louvre. (We have not waited longer than 5 minutes for a train since we've been here. Why can't we silly Americans get this urban transportation thing nailed down???).
The Louvre - in a word: it's ginormous (gigantic/enormous). Imagine all of the Smithsonian museums rolled into one, then toss in the Uffizzi in Florence and you'd probably have about half of the Louvre. We managed to sprint up to the Mona Lisa, see some other lovely outsized paintings, eat a spot of lunch in the cafe, take in "part of" the Egyptian stone work, and see the French sculpture garden before dragging our sorry behinds out the door. We actually had the best time dishing the art (the sculpture and paintings especially) and I of course got to swoon over the drop dead selection of jewels... swoon. I also spotted the obligatory yummy man to photograph just as we were leaving the sculpture garden. We made a very quick pit stop and dashed in and out of the museum shop for books.
We decided (rather to my chagrin) to walk back to the apartment. I am glad we did though, as it was a lovely walk and we got to see lots of beautiful old architecture and shops shops shops!!! Now we're back at "home" and Ryan is busily cooking us dinner. I will cook a lovely chicken next week at some point: chicken with onions and garlic and white wine. Maybe some yummy green beans too.
I have to go now because Peter and Billy are teasing me mercilessly about being so slllloooooowwwwwww....... :-)
Today we got up around 8:00 after a lovely night's sleep. Peter and Ryan went out early and got our morning pastries. We were out the door around 10:30; that is Peter, Steve, and myself. Ryan, Bill, and Steve C. all decided to go their separate ways today - though we all ended up at the Louvre at some point during the day, all but Ryan that is. We walked down to the Metro and hopped on a train to Gare Du Nord to pick up our train tickets for London and Amsterdam. Poor Steve waited in several different lines to get the tickets because none of our bankcards seem to work in any of these Parisian self-service ticket machines (for trains or tickets to Disneyland or the Louvre or...). Apparently its because we poor Americans have those stupid and backward cards with a magnetic stripe instead of the fabulous new "smart cards" with a built-in microchip. :P As long as we can get cash out of the bank machines I'm happy :-))
After spending much too long in the train station (lovely light airy building) we hopped on another Metro to the Louvre. (We have not waited longer than 5 minutes for a train since we've been here. Why can't we silly Americans get this urban transportation thing nailed down???).
The Louvre - in a word: it's ginormous (gigantic/enormous). Imagine all of the Smithsonian museums rolled into one, then toss in the Uffizzi in Florence and you'd probably have about half of the Louvre. We managed to sprint up to the Mona Lisa, see some other lovely outsized paintings, eat a spot of lunch in the cafe, take in "part of" the Egyptian stone work, and see the French sculpture garden before dragging our sorry behinds out the door. We actually had the best time dishing the art (the sculpture and paintings especially) and I of course got to swoon over the drop dead selection of jewels... swoon. I also spotted the obligatory yummy man to photograph just as we were leaving the sculpture garden. We made a very quick pit stop and dashed in and out of the museum shop for books.
We decided (rather to my chagrin) to walk back to the apartment. I am glad we did though, as it was a lovely walk and we got to see lots of beautiful old architecture and shops shops shops!!! Now we're back at "home" and Ryan is busily cooking us dinner. I will cook a lovely chicken next week at some point: chicken with onions and garlic and white wine. Maybe some yummy green beans too.
I have to go now because Peter and Billy are teasing me mercilessly about being so slllloooooowwwwwww....... :-)
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