Our trip to Paris, Part 2

Hi Good readers,

Yesterday I stopped while we were on our way back to Paris from Ghent in Belgium. We used the reverse order of the train service to get back.

Our hotel was close to Gare du L'Est (the second largest metro station in Paris - the largest being Gare du Nord or Northern Station, if you must. You'll see in the pic exactly how close and the Good Wife loved the location. At the check-in desk we were served by a gentleman of North African origin and there were no shenenigans i.e. the online booking reflected properly on the hotel's system etc.

There was  a small change, truth be told. Or originally computer assigned room on the 2nd floor was undergoing renovations and it was exchanged for a room on the 5th floor, a room with a view and a balcony. The views from the balcony was magnificent and the Good wife was elated. I was a bit impressed myself. Your view???

Gare du L'Est across from our balcony

 The view across the street easily confirmed our concept of old Paris as well:

The view at night is simply gorgeous as well but you'll have to take my word for it :-). No you don't!!

Early eveing view od Gare du L'Est

The Good Wife had only one objective foremost in her mind. Get to the Louvre!!

It was up to moi to get our ducks in a row and off the Louvre we went. Luckily for us it was not such a busy day but early morning bustle at Cape Town station had nothing on the crowds. Our Paris Pass worked a treat and we skipped quite a few queues before finding ourselves in the hallowed halls faithfully and sometimes terrifyingly depicted in Dan Brown novels. All the "Dan Brown said this and Dan Brown said that" that streamed into both my ears were lost on uncultured me, who never held Dan's books in high esteem, preferring the Aussie John Pilger and his ilk instead. There you have it I'm a closet Aussie lover. Oz is good for something! apart from sheep and cricket.

We stopped off at the 850 year-old Notre Dame on the way to the Louvre.

We then made our way to the above-ground glass pyramid and to the Egyptology sector next. After that, the Good Wife could not be contained from getting to the Mona Lisa anymore and she used me as a snow plough to get through the throngs of mostly white people.

Springbok at the bottom

I realised why I liked the Egyptology section when I saw one of their murals depicting a Springbok well and alive while most other animals except dogs were depicted in a dead poses. Good to know I come from a country with an appreciation for the finer things in life as well; the Springbok being one our national sports emblems.

I must admit my noticing the springbok was total luck and that I only developed this context when I started writing this current post.

But, such is the case with most scientific discoveries. It waits to be discovered and placed in some pre-existing or brand new context.

The cow at the top of the Egyptian mural was food, the Springbok was clearly not.

We then made our way to the Romance period hall and scrummed to get to the Mona Lisa. I again remembered the Springbok and did my bit for "Volk en Vaderland" (for the sake of the beloved country) to get closer. The Good Wife is rather chesty and ok in open play but she's no frontranker, so she quit the scrum when it became more interesting. She swears that Mona Lisa's eyes followed her wherever she went in the hall. Me, I was too busy scrumming to notice being watched by a really old bird!!!

The Chesty One in Open Play

Scrum to get close to Mona Lisa

I therefore took some pics of the Mona Lisa without the assistance of my wingwoman! Came out OK, given that it was a continually moving scrum. I had to zoom in and this did not do the pic quality any wonders.

MonaLisa-ZoomQualityReduced 

The pic does not do the Dan Brown version any justice but the Good Wife accepted it was the best I could do (scouts honour!) Scouts honour is not generally accepted if it comes from me but she clearly had no appetite to tackle that particular international scrum to get a better version.So my low quality version stands for posterity!!

We were already tired from traipsing all over Central Paris so we only took a few further pics in the Louvre before making a beeline for our comfortable hotel room via the metro. One Metro stop leads directly into the shopping area of the Louvre, so it is the easiest way to get there for me. One of the pics was of the throne of one of the Popes of the Holy Roman Empire.

The Louvre is the largest museum in the world and it is impossible to see everything in our estimation in less than 3 or 4 days. We missed three more halls in our quick visit and the good wife would love to return. This can happen should I win the Lotto (which I do not play) or if by somesuch miracle enough money falls into our laps.

I'm going to sign off for today but there are at least two more installments on Paris waiting for the scribe!

Trust you enjoyed this post,

Keep well until next time!