The day started out pretty early with a walk to the Gare de
Nord Station to buy our tickets on the EuroStar express train to London for the
next day. There was a one day transit
strike going on so lots of people who were scheduled to travel on the EuroStart
today had to switch to tomorrow or find another way of getting to London. Oh,
these European strikes are much too frequent and so, so annoying, I’m just glad
we were not traveling today.
We took the metro to the Louvre Museum where we spent almost
three hours walking around enjoying one of the world’s greatest art museums and
by far some of the world’s most famous works.
We took pictures in front of the The Winged Victory of Samothrace with her beautiful wings
extended. As you can see from the pictures of me and mom we both tried to
emulate her stance, but clearly not as gracefully.
Some of the other great works we saw were from Alessandro
Filipepi det Botticelli likes his fresco’s “Venus and the Three Graces” created
from 1483-1485 and “A Young Man is Presented to Venus” also 1483 – 1485. Since
they are so similar in color and form and of the same time period I would imagine
they were initially created to be shown in the same space.
I loved this painting of the Nativity by Bernardo Luini whom
I’d never heard of before but this piece titled “La Nativite et l’Annonce aux
Bergers” has such an air of innocence and simple beauty I had to take a
picture.
Another Botticelli caught my eye as well “La Vierge et
l’Enfant avec le Jeune Saint Jean Baptiste” 1470-1475. Although this picture
hardly does it justice the colors are so vibrant and the expressions so sweet.
In line with the mother and child paintings this one by
Lorenzo di Credi titled “La Vierge el’Enfant Entre Saint Julian et Saint
Nicholas de Myre” really just made me smile because the baby Jesus is so
adorably chubby with the rolls of fat and then the expression on his face and
the gesture (which is him actually giving a blessing) looks like he’s got a
real attitude in the Italian sense. And the hair is just too funny. I think
it’s a great painting and certainly not the usual depiction of this scene we
are used to.
And there was a very unexpected pleasure of seeing another
Leonard de Vinci titled “La Vierge aux Rochers” with wonderful contrast between
shadow and light and the sweetness of the subject matter in contrast with the
dark caves in the background. There was a large crowd of Russian visitors in
front of it discussing its merits I’m sure, although I speak no Russian so who
really knows, but we would have maybe passed by it had we not been interested
in what all the talk was about. There was a second, smaller de Vinci next to it
of I believe titled “Portrait of a women.”
Off we went to the see the quintessential de Vinci the “Mona
Lisa” which was only right down the hall. She was as beautiful as the first
time I saw her on my last visit to the Louvre 5 years ago and the crowds were
just as large although we were able, within a few minutes to make our way to
the front. My camera doesn’t take great close up pictures and as you are not
able to get within 10 or 15 feet of her (she’s safely behind a Plexiglas
shield) my pictures are a little blurry. But you can still appreciate her
beauty and his talent.
We made our way back to the Italian Salon where we saw a
series of 4 paintings by Giuseppe Arcinboldo, also new to me, who did the 4
pieces of the four seasons but using fruits and vegetables to created faces for
each season. They’re fun and sort of whimsical.
A long walk along the lots of art filled rooms and passages
brought us to the Object de Arts section where I found a glass cabinet with
ceramic angels and just had to take a picture. We all love angels they’re so
reassuring and happy.
After a quick visit to the Egyptian rooms and Midlevel
section we headed out to take the Metro to sacre coeur which is the incredible cathedral at
the top of a hill in the Montmartre section of Paris. Once out of the metro
station we stopped in a lovely church, St. Jean de Montmartre with a very darkly painted interior but with a magnificent
stained glass window over the alter and with the gorgeous bright sunlight it
simply glowed with beauty. We took the funicular up the hill to the church as
it was a bit of a hike for mom and probably me if I had begun the assent.
Sacre Coeur is a breathtaking sight and we walked around the massive interior
but were not allowed to take pictures. Outside you have such breathtaking views
of Paris which was wonderful even if it was rather overcast by then and you
can’t see all the cities details. There
was a Heart Healthy exhibition going on along the park in front of the
Cathedral as you can see from the red signs and the large red and black heart
light up screen that is being operated by people who are riding stationary
bikes which I imagine are there to encourage them to get exercise.
We took the metro down to the Citi stop which is right near
the Notre Dame Cathedral. Where we attempted to get on a boat tour of the Seine
River which took much longer than we expected because mom asked a tour bus
driver who sold us tickets but didn’t tell us the boat was a good 40 minute
walk away. We started out walking and passed the following bridges which was
actually really nice for me because I love to walk a city to really get the
feel for it and we had taken so many Metro’s we had hardly seen any of the city
outside. We passed the following bridges
St. Michele, Pont Neuf, Pont Du Carrousel, Pont Royal, Pont Du La Concorde,
Pont Alexendre II, Pont des Invelides, Pont de L’Alma, Pont de Lena. This was
certainly a long walk but the weather was great and most of the way we could
see the Eiffel Tower which was a great beacon of hope that we were not too far
off. We stopped at a few boat docks but
they weren’t the right ones so it took even longer to get there but we finally
made it and just as we reached the Eiffel Tower just above the dock we needed
it hit 8:00pm and the tower began to sparkle and flash with thousands of tiny
white lights. We were expecting it as we had seen it happen on our last visit
but it was still so exciting and I think of it as my personal birthday candle!
The cruise was perfect and we enjoyed all the history of
each bridge and the surround areas and once back at the Tower we enjoyed a few
more moments watching the elevators take people up to the top and then we
headed back to the Metro to take the subway to Gare Du Nord where our hotel
was. We were a block from our hotel when
we stopped for some take out dinner which we were going to eat in the nice
sitting area of our lobby. We got Indian
food and I know you’re thinking what did mom eat, well she had butter Nan bread
and vegetable samosas which she completely enjoyed and I had the nan and some
vegetable curry with a yummy cheese donut type dessert as my birthday cake. It
was actually a perfect meal for me as I enjoy Indian food so much.
We also met a very nice man from the Congo who works at the
hotel on the overnight shift and is a student in Paris. He chatted with us for a bit and then had to
go to work and that’s when we met a very sweet man, Pedro from Los Angeles who
was in the lobby trying to get wifi connection. He is on vacation with a friend
and they are off to Amsterdam on Saturday morning after he visits EuroDisney
tomorrow. He worked for the LA Customs
office for 9 years but then came up with an idea, after having lots several
loved ones, that people should be able to have a headstone or an urn if they
are cremated that they can record a video on. He developed and patented his
invention and also has one that is a hologram where you can press a button on
the headstone and a large image of the person is projected outward and they can
talk to you. Several preprogrammed questions are asked of the person before
they pass and when you ask the question like “how are you” they can answer “I’m
great and miss and love you.” It seems
like a wonderful, thoughtful, loving idea for grieving families and friends to
be able to stay connected to their loved ones. He has a web site memoryofme.com
He was so wonderful to chat with we were downstairs until
about midnight but then we headed off to bed since we had to be up early to
take the early train to London.
It was a wonderful 45th birthday and it was so
generous and kind of mom to take me on this whole trip. I am so grateful for it
all and glad I got to visit Paris again!!!
