Never Say Die

French rap music sucks.

Okay, maybe it doesn’t suck, but it sure does at 2 or 3 in the morning. Some dill hole was blasting that wretched noise out of what seemed like airhorn speakers from either his car, with his doors ajar or his flat with the windows opened for the whole of our block to hear. Probably for a stretch of up and down a few blocks. Where the heck was the noise police? Needless to say, I didn’t get nearly enough sleep as Chris and I planned on going to the Louvre early this morning. I woke up a little cranky. Argh.

Everyone has one of those days when they’ve been travelling a while or living in another city, when you have one of those, ‘I hate (insert city here) today’. Well, today was my I hate Paris day.

Things did not improve my mood when we were on our way out and I noticed a big wad of gum stuck on the bottom of my purse. Brilliant. It probably happened yesterday when I set my black leather bag down at whichever restaurant or cafe we were at. Bloody hell or ‘Putain‘ in french. My day had not even begun yet! Argh!

We got to the Louvre and surfaced from the metro station, right under the glass pyramid, made famous by a little movie called, The da Vinci Code. With its endless corridors, the Louvre is the world’s largest museum and is a treasure trove of over 35,000 works on display. The Louvre was heaving with people, as today was a Wednesday and kids don’t go to school on Wednesday. Great, tourists and kidlets make for memorable maneuvering, n’est-ce pas?

Everything was about queuing up…to buy a €9 tix, queuing for the bathrooms, for taking a pic of the Venus de Milo, for taking a picture of the Winged Victory (featured in the superb scene in Funny Face with Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire) and of course jostling your way in a mosh-pit sized amount of people to catch a glimpse of La Jaconde, better known the world over as the Mona Lisa. It was a zoo!

People a whole room width wide and half an exhibition room deep. Everyone elbowing their way to the front of the wooden railing (and you’re still pretty far back from the painting too) to view the only picture mounted to the wall, behind floor to ceiling thick bulletproof glass. Like any art lover, I just had too see da Vinci’s masterpiece with my own eyes. iI’s just one of those things.

Truth be told though, I like da Vinci’s Madonna on the Rocks, that was hung in the outside corridor, much more. And not because of the freak show circus surrounding the Mona Lisa. It just simply is a more exquisite painting in my eyes.

Other highlights from the Louvre include the ancient Egypt wing, with mummified animals and just one mummy. My favourite sculpture has got to be Antonio Canova’s statue of Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss. It so beautiful and not at all besieged by people! The floor to ceiling, large format French paintings wing is definitely worth a visit too.

The weirdest and ‘Why on earth is THAT at the Louvre?’ moment belonged to the Jan Fabre L’ange de la Metamorphose exhibit on the top floor. Call it art if you must, but I think the man is one beer short of a six pack.

Some of his works included: a coffin with a peacock head/tailed feathers, decapitated owl heads, tombs made of skulls, swords and crosses, birds that sh*t & rats that fly, a roomful of gravestones, the artist imagined as an 8 foot worm, statues of a man and table made of upturned gold thumbtacks, monks robe made of circular disks of real bones, to name but a disturbed few items. I tried to keep an open mind, but I just had to take pics, as I’m sure I wouldn’t be believed if I told people what I saw.

After spending 4 hrs at the Louvre, Chris and I threw in the towel. We headed back to L’entrecote in Bastille for lunch. For €12 or $18 CDN, I got a starter of calamari and shrimp, salmon pasta in cream sauce and a drink. Tres bien!

Today is the first day of summer madness, with all stores having sales of 10-60% off. Not sure what possessed me, but I wanted to check it out and see if I can buy something in Paris.

So we headed for the Paris equivalent of Oxford Street, called Rue de Rivoli. We checked out the not so pretty, but darn busy underground mall at Les Halles. The lunatics are taking over the asylum is what I thought with so many people fighting to taking advantage of first day sales and selections. Argh.

We walked some more to a cafe a few blocks away, and I swear I thought any more walking and my arches may surely fall. At this point, I was too exhausted to care about anything and too tired to cry or get upset even when the waiter accidentally knocked my eyeglasses down on the floor and I had knocked over 1/2 glass of water on the table, spilling on my lap and purse. Nothing. No anger, just abject resignation to a day that kinda kicked my ass. What else could be thrown my way today, I thought?

Although I tried to keep up a brave face, chatting with Chris, I know I wasn’t the best company. Not at my most charming, I felt like a tethered balloon losing its helium. Finishing dinner at 10pm, Chris recommended that we walk over to the river for me to catch a photo of the sunset. He thought that i would like it for my last night in Paris. (bless)

And he was right.

We didn’t get to be on the oldest and most famous bridge, Pont Neuf for sunset as we would’ve never made it in time, walking to the farthest bridge. But we spent it on Petit Pont, 2 bridges back behind Pont Neuf, first on the left bank of the Seine, then walking over to the right bank. It was splenderifirous!

Having taken pics at both banks of Petit Pont, we walked up to the next bridge, Pont St Michel (one behind Pont Neuf) for another perspective. And what a perspective! Standing on Pont St Michel, the lit up Eiffel Tower was in front of us! We watched the sun go down completely, and the night sky go from a deep twilight blue to black.

And then just when I thought my day couldn’t turn around more, it did. And the most wonderful thing I could’ve ever imagined happened. The Eiffel Tower started to sparkle like crazy! Every hour, for 10 minutes on the hour, the entire tower sparkles with 20,000 gold tone lights. And I got to see it! A glittering diamond-like effect for a dazzling light show!

We wanted one last nightcap and sat kiddy corner across the street, at Le Mistral with views of the bridges and the Eiffel Tower. I finally got my crepe with whipped cream and ate it, taking in the view.

My day had ended perfectly. Paris, je t’aime again.

View more photos of my trip on my Flickr album.

Hours:
Daily (except Tues): 9 a.m.–6 p.m.
Wed, Fri: 9 a.m.–9:45 p.m.
Closed on Jan 1, May 1 and Dec 25

Address:
Rue de Rivoli
75001 Paris
GPS coordinates: 48.8606146,2.3354553