Louvre – Or so we thought…
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Today there was no rush to get up at all. We got up around 11 and decided that it would be a nice idea to finish off the washing before heading into town. By the time we managed to get to the Laundromat and do the washing it was getting on to 1 so we got directions to a supermarket as to get lunch before the Louvre. Lunch was not cool, the supermarket was another of the teeny tiny ones - NZ petrol stations have more variety. But we did manage to buy a couple of things that sort of passed for food and most importantly water. Walking back to the metro station we jumped on and headed for the Louvre. We wanted to get there around 2.30 as it’s cheaper after 3pm and we figured that the line would have to be at least half an hour long. From the metro exit it’s only a small walk to the entrance and it was a relief not to see any lines of people waiting but as we got closer realised that there were in fact no lines at all, and a barrier before the entrance… Confused we walked over to the tourist information office which was conveniently next to the entrance and asked just why it appeared to be closed – possibly we had the wrong entrance? No, as it turns out the Louvre is never or has never been open on Tuesdays (yet another wonderful example of how the French like to keep you guessing. We were not told or have never read anywhere that it is closed on Tuesdays!) We stood in disbelief as if we hadn’t heard her properly and I think that she genuinely felt sorry for us but there was nothing that she could really say other than sorry. We still hadn’t made it to ground level yet as the entrance is underground and I thought that seeing as we had come all this way that I at least wanted photos of the building itself. What a wonderful thing the Louvre is, although I’m not too sure about the pyramid, it seems pretty foreign to me given that the rest of the building is so beautiful and old. We sat for a long time cursing the French and wishing that we could get inside but then focusing on just what we would do for the rest of the day.
We decided that we would go and see the Notre Dame as it wasn’t to far away and after walking a short distance found there to be a lot of street stalls with art and crafts, so it took a long time to get to the church. The church itself was just another church but had very nice gardens so after we had walked through the inside we sat in the shade close to the river and ‘people watched’ for a bit. Once again we looked at the map and I noticed that we were close to St Germain De Pres and I quickly decided that we had to go. It took a while to get there but I’m so glad that we did. It was the most peaceful and beautiful church that we have been to. I’m not to sure what gave it more character than the other churches that we have been to, it may just be that it was a church rather that a tourist attraction but it had such a nice ambiance. They even had a printout of what all the different alters were, for a mere 10 cents (rather than the 5 – 10 Euros that most would charge you for an audio guide).
We had to book our tickets to Amsterdam and unfortunately I had left the Eurail passes at the hotel so we headed back to organise ourselves for the coming days travel. In Paris it takes a while to get anywhere so by the time we got back and sorted out our travel, it was around 7.30 and time to get ready to go to the Eiffel Tower. We assumed that there would be at least a half hour wait in line so the sun would be just about to set as we got up the tower. It took quite a long time to get there so it was a relief when we saw that there was basically no queue! We snaked around the empty queue area walking right up to the window after only waiting for one person before getting our tickets. It cost €10.70 per person to get all the way up to the top which we were only too happy to pay. The lifts are a strange experience, you get crammed in tight and then you feel like it should go up but instead you go diagonally up, which is a sensational that takes a moment to get used to. This elevator takes you to halfway and then you change to an ordinary elevator to get further but at this stage there was a bit of a queue so we had a look around before jumping in the queue and going to the top. It is a long way up to the top and when the elevator finally opened its doors we were greeted by a platform with so many people on it, it was hard to know where to go. We made for the main viewing platform and squeezed into a spot overlooking the Arc De Triumph and the Louvre, just on the verge of night and day where all the lights of the buildings are on and the sky is full of colour. We stayed up top for quite a while before joining the queue to get back down, but stayed on the first level as they had a little food store with reasonable prices and seems as we hadn’t had dinner and it was after 10 thought it was probably a good idea, and besides how often can you say that you dined over looking Paris from the Eiffel Tower?! After our lovely dinner we headed down and caught the metro home.
posted by Maarty @ 12:00 pm,
