Our next day began with a school-wide trip to the Louvre, which is so much bigger than I ever could have imagined. We were given until 3pm to explore, and I can tell you right now that it was not anywhere near enough time to see everything. When I return to Paris, I will likely devote a full day just to exploring the Louvre. Jamie and I broke off from the group and started our tour with the ancient Egyptian exhibit, which alone probably took over 2 hours. It probably could have been a museum all its own. They had everything from massive monuments to weapons to pieces of jewelry. There were even mummies- one human mummy and several animal mummies. I think I most enjoyed the monumental statuary and stelae. The jewelry was also really interesting. Overall what impressed me most was how preserved everything was…in a lot of cases the colors were still bold and bright.
After the Egytptian exhibit, we went quickly through the ancient Mesopotamian exhibit, which featured a lot of HUGE statues among other things. I wished I could have spent a bit more time in this part, but our schedule had us in a rush. From Mesopotamia, we found our way to the apartments of Napoleon III. These truly defy description…the incredible opulence and gaudiness of it was almost overwhelming. I particularly enjoyed the large dining room, which featured a table that sat at least 20 people, several crystal chandeliers, lush drapery, and…huge dark paintings of animals violently tearing each other apart. How…appetizing?
We went from the apartments past Nike of Samothrace (which was exciting to see in real life), to Italian Renaissance paintings, hoping to see the work of the great masters/Ninja Turtles. Instead, what we got was mostly relgious paintings that characterized the early Renaissance, with only a few Raphaels and one Leonardo (the Mona Lisa, of course). It was a little disappointing, but we did happen upon the works of one of my all-time favorites, a French painter named Eugene Delacroix. His most famous work was The Raft of the Medusa, and seeing it in person along with his other works was worth the museum trip alone. We then passed through the Greek antiquities on the way back to the entrance, where we were going to meet Claire for lunch. It was mostly ancient sculpture, which I very much enjoyed and again wished I could have had more time to view.
After lunch, we had a little bit of extra time before we were supposed to meet up with the sequential students for our trip to the Catacombs, so we passed through Italian Renaissance sculpture, and were once again disappointed. Obviously, none of this is to say that the sculpture and paintings weren’t good. It’s just that we were hoping to see one thing and got quite another. If I had it to do again, I would have gone to the French sculptures and paintings instead. Anyway, we finally met up with the sequential department at 3pm. The architecture students were long gone on a trip to several Le Corbusier buildings. I got out of those trips by convincing Daves that the Catacombs were more relevant to my major and that I personally had much more interest in them. He agreed to letting me go, on the condition that I would meet up with the group at the Cite d’Architecture at 6:30pm. After making sure we had everyone, we took the Metro to Place Denfert Rochereau, where the Catacombs museum is located. After some confusion in trying to find it, we did in fact reach the museum. And it was closed. Why didn’t they call ahead and find this out beforehand? Your guess is as good as mine. At any rate, we were allowed to go do our own thing after that.
Jamie and I decided to take the Metro to Notre Dame and use our museum passes (neat little passes that let you into certain museums for free for two days) on the archaeological site underneath the cathedral. Unfortunately, this museum was a smaller lame version of the underground Roman ruins in Barcelona. We then went into the cathedral with the intention of going up into the towers, but by the time we found out how to do that, it was too late. With only a little bit of time before we had to be at the Cite d’Architecture, we went back to the hotel for a few minutes, then got on the Metro for the long ride out to our destination.
The Cite d’Architecture is a sort of interesting museum full of architectural features and models. We cruised through the museum pretty quickly, though, because it was right next to the Eiffel Tower and we wanted to see the light show they do every night at 7pm. The light show mostly involves flashing lights making the tower look sparkly and pretty. I have to admit, the Eiffel Tower looks a lot cooler in person than I expected it would. We rushed outside with Emily and Anna to see the light show, and after it was over, we decided to get some sushi at a restaurant near the hotel. James, Anna, Emily, Melissa, Jamie, Leigh, Isaac and I took the Metro back and, after a brief stop at the hotel, we went to the best sushi restaurant ever. It was super cheap and delicious (especially considering the price) and the waiters kept giving us free soup and tea and rice. It was a lot of fun. Afterwards, we walked through a part of the Latin Quarter that is full of ethnic restaurants, bars, clubs, and tourist shops. It was very cool and we saw some places that we definitely wanted to revisit.
We decided to go to a place Emily recommended for ice cream, and along the way, we happened upon a break-dancing exhibition. We (along with a huge crowd) watched the whole thing. So much fun. Finally, we reached the ice cream shop and it was as good as promised by Emily. I got a double with a scoop of chocolate and a scoop of raspberry sorbet. They went together surprisingly well. After dessert, we were all tired and ready to go back to the hotel. That is, until we ran into Claire and a huge group of people who were heading toward a karaoke bar. We were all down for this…at first, that is. After we couldn’t find the first bar, we had the option of going to another one or going to a non-karaoke bar that Miles discovered in his guidebook. We opted to find the other karaoke place, which turned out to be REALLY FAR AWAY. During this walk my knee started hurting. After the first hour of walking, I was on the verge of tears because it hurt so bad and I couldn’t find a Metro, which was going to close in less than an hour, meaning I would have to walk at least an hour back.
Luckily for me, we did find a metro, and several other students and I took it back to the hotel. When I finally willed myself from the Metro station to the hotel and up the stairs, I was actually in tears. I turned on the shower, sat down in it and let the warm water hit my knee until the pain faded a bit. After my shower, I got into bed and lay there for about an hour before Miles and Jamie got back. By the time I finally went to sleep, I was once again left with only about 4 hours before the next morning’s wakeup call.
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