We've had "The DaVinci Code" on the brain all morning! We spent the morning touring the Lourve, checking out all of the famous art and sculpture. It was amazing. There is so much there, its kind of hard to process it all. We walked in and directly went to the Mona Lisa. I'm sorry I don't have a picture of it to show you all, but they don't let you take pictures of it. It's not like they tell you not to use your flash. It's no pictures, period! I think it is more of a function of a bunch of people standing around taking pictures as much as damaging the art. Anyways, the Mona Lisa is amazing. You kind of can't believe that you are standing there looking at it. I was surprised that it was a bit small. It's definitely not like what you see in the movies. It's in the middle of a big room with other paintings as well. I was also expecting some guards with machine guns, but there is none of that either. It kind of gives you a weird feeling to actually see it in person. You start to notice all of the things you hear about; the little smile, the no eyebrows, the messed up horizon. It's weird. I think Ryan said it best when he said "I could stand here and look at this all day and I don't quite know why. We saw the Venus di Milo which was also impressive. The detail involved in some of the marble sculpture is amazing. Someone spent a lot of time with a hammer and a chisel.
After the Louvre, we caught the metro back over to Notre Dame. Notre dame is impressive, but a bit touristy for me. There are tons of people all over the place along with all of the beggars and the guys hocking Eiffel tower key chains (they're all over Paris). We went inside and it was pretty impressive although, not nearly as good as St. Peter in Rome. I thought the stained glass inside was pretty neat, until we went to the next place...
I think I found the best kept secret in Paris. Two and a half blocks from Notre Dame is a lesser known church called Sainte Chapelle. Its a little hard to find because the French government built the Ministry of Justice around it (figure that one out). Also, because it is in the Ministry of Justice, security is crazy, but once you get in, it is worth it. Sainte Chapelle is not a big church, I'd say the inside is about the size of a big basketball court, however, the stained glass is incredible. Its not a window here or there, we're talking windows 40 feet high by 10 feet wide. I bet there wasn't a piece of glass anywhere that was bigger than a silver dollar. I'm glad I went in.
After Sainte Chapelle, we took a boat ride down to the Eiffel Tower and back. The ride was very cool. We saw the Lourve, the Orsay, the Eiffel Tower and all of the other sights from the river. It was kind of an interesting viewpoint (and it was nice to sit down for awhile).
After we got off the boat, we walked up to the street to head back to the hotel. As I was standing on the corner, a 1938 Bugatti went flying by me. The Bugatti was followed up by a 1928 Chrysler 75. Come to find out, there is a car rally that runs from Peking, China (yeah, China!) to Paris. It takes a month or so and there are cars from 1908 to 1950 in it. Can you imagine driving a car from China to Paris that was built just after the turn of the century? On the upside, I guess it would be easier to fix. Turns out today is the last day, and they were headed for the finish line across town. I thought it was pretty cool.
We're going to head out for some dinner here soon. After dinner I think we're going to turn in early. We need to get up and get to the train station for our 150 mph bullet train ride to Dijon tomorrow. The train leaves at 10:30am and we should arrive in Dijon about noon or so. I'm looking forward to getting out into the country. You never realize what a country boy you are and how much you miss looking at fields and such until you're plopped down in a city like Paris. I need some elbow room! I also need my wife, but there isn't much I can do about that until I get back.
A quick run down on the pictures above... The first two are Sainte Chapelle, the third picture is the famous pyramid at the lourve, the fouth is Venus di Milo, and the 5th is a 1927 Bentley 4.5 Le Mans flying by me (and I do mean flying...after all, after driving from Peking to Paris I'd be looking for a bathroom too!!).
Anyways, hope all is well with everyone!
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