5/1/11

Trip Journal: Paris Update #11

Paris Update #11
Sunday, May 1, 2011 7:42 PM


Dear Friends and Family,

Ah, the Louvre...

SUSAN WRITES:
When I first thought of coming to Paris, I thought of the Louvre...I had visions of spending a full day wandering through it and seeing it all -- which I now know is a ridiculous proposition!

Isa had made it clear, once we started talking about it, that we would need to choose only a couple of things we wanted to see. We settled on Da Vinci and the Dutch painters. Once we got there, we realized that even that was impossible!

Isa’s son, Guillaume, came with us, as there was a book he needed for school, and they knew they could find it in Paris. We love Guillaume, or Guigui, as Isa calls him -- he’s bright, funny and has been much quicker to learn English than we've been to learn French!

On the way to the Louvre, Isa took us to the Rue du Banquier, which figured prominently in the MI-5 story I wrote, and which I’d only seen on Google Street Views. I’d walked these streets extensively on the computer, but to walk them in real life was amazing. The primary character lived at #2, and there was the green door with black wrought iron that I had described in great detail. I stood in front of it, and felt I’d stepped into my own story!

ROBERT WRITES:
You enter The Louvre through the glass pyramid in the center of the Plaza. We'd been there a few days before on our walking tour, but today, all of the fountains were on, making for great photo opportunities. There were many people sitting, eating lunch, and lying on the cement walls, enjoying the cooling water displays. It happened that it was one of the hottest days of the year in Paris.

As you enter the glass pyramid, you go down under the Plaza and see the entrance to the museum. Isa had told us how big it was, but we couldn't believe our eyes. The Louvre is at least six stories, with three underground, and three above, in a massive u-shaped building. There was no way we were even going to get to see a tenth of it!

SUSAN WRITES:
How to describe the Louvre? I’ll just say that as we were going down the escalator, I heard a Southern American accent right behind me. I turned and said, you’re from America? She said, yes, from South Carolina. Then she said, “How many days have you spent here?” I told her we’d been in Paris and London for nearly two weeks. She smiled, and said, “No, I meant how many days have you spent at the Louvre?”

ROBERT WRITES:
If you're a fan of the book or the movie “The Da Vinci Code” as I am, you can imagine how fun it is to see the Mona Lisa, the upside-down glass pyramid above the smaller stone pyramid, and the glass Plaza that the Rose Line runs through. If you're not a fan, or have not seen the movie or read the book, just know that for me, it was really cool to be right there where a lot of the action takes place.

Thirty years ago, when I was at the Louvre as a student on a three-week tour of France, I can only remember seeing the Mona Lisa and the parquet flooring. This time I was amazed by all of the other paintings, glassware, furniture, tapestries, sculptures and antique watch displays that we saw. On this trip, I felt lost in the immensity of the museum several times, and have put it on my list for our return trip to Paris someday.

SUSAN WRITES:
We stuck to our plan and went straight to the Mona Lisa. She wasn’t hard to find, but she was very hard to see. Smaller than I ever imagined, she hung under glass at the far side of a room that was literally packed with people. I can see the Mona Lisa in complete detail just with a quick search on the internet -– but what fascinated me were the people! Taking photos, standing reverently, from every country in the world, speaking every language –- I wondered, did Da Vinci have any idea, as he painted her, how she would capture the imagination of so many?

ROBERT WRITES:
The announcement was made that the Museum was closing, and we decided to leave and head to the shopping center where Isa could get the book for Guillaume. We stopped at another café called “Au Chien Qui Fume,” which translated strangely into "The Dog Who Smokes." Guillaume ordered his favorite carbonated lemonade in a bottle -- its name comes from the sound the fizz makes when it's opened, but written on the bottle is "PscHitt!" We'll leave you to pronounce that for yourselves...:-)

We headed underground to an mall where Isa said there was a very big FNAC store. This is a book store that also has every electronic item that you can imagine, and every video game, movie or software product you could ever want. I, of course, wanted to look at every part of this mall -- but I knew that our group was getting tired, as was I, so I'll have to experience it again someday!

My French phrase? All I can say about this day is “Mon Dieu!” or “Wow!” What a day!

SUSAN WRITES:
The FNAC bookshop was amazing! As a lover of bookshops anyway, it was almost as overwhelming as the Louvre, and as impossible to see in its entirety. So, I headed for the language section, looking for a French/English phrasebook. I found one that was perfect for me, but I was unaware of the entertainment value it would hold later in the evening as we leafed through it with Dom, Isa and Guillaume!

You see, it has not only the English and French, but also a phonetic translation. If you want to say...
"What's the admission charge?" that translates into...
"Quel est le prix d'admission?" All well and good, but the phonetic translation is...
"kel ay ler pree dad-mee-syon" :-)

For some reason, this sent our lovely French friends into gales of laughter as they read through them, at the same time they acknowledged that it was absolutely ingenious!

Who needs expensive entertainment? That book and a bottle of French wine took care of the night! :-))

And on that note, here is some French to learn...

1. par-lay-voo ong-glay?
2. voo za-bee-tay ee-see?
3. sa voo play ee-see?
4. sa mer play bo-koo ee-see.
(translations below...no peeking till you've read these!)

Much love...
Susan and Robert
xxxxxxx

1. parlez-vous anglais? (Do you speak English?)
2. vous habitez ici? (Do you live here?)
3. ça vous plait ici? (Do you like it here?)
4. ça me plait beaucoup ici. (I love it here)

Yes, we do...:-))

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