Paris - Day Two

We didn't get up and about quite as early today; it was more like 8 AM or so before we made it out of the apartment. I started the day off with another apricot pastry from the bakery down the street, and we then spent the greater portion of the day in the Musée du Grand Louvre. We arrived at the museum at about 9 AM (roughly its time of opening). The line was insanely long (I'm talking down the block and around the corner long), but it was moving really fast due to the fact that the museum is free on the first Sunday of every month, so there were no tickets to worry about, just security. After about thirty minutes we made it in and started checking the place out. It was pretty incredible! It was also incredibly huge.

My favorite piece was actually one of the first pieces I saw. It was Antonio Canova's sculpture "Psyché ranimée par le baiser de l'Amour" ("Psyche revived by Love's kiss" aka, "Cupid and Psyche"). But I think the aspect about the Louvre that I enjoyed the most was not what was in the museum, but the museum itself. The building was originally built as a stylish Imperial Residenz, but in the process of converting it into a museum, the interior was completely redesigned. Not only is every room/section decorated differently, but some of the areas were completely restructured in processes that included removing walls and that have rendered the original building unrecognizable. One of my favorite examples is the medieval stone-walled moat in the basement of the Sully Wing. The walls and floor are all stone and dirt (some of it the original from a castle built on the spot by one Louis or another).

I spent a good four hours or so walking around the exhibits. I did see the Mona Lisa, but I found it insanely overrated. Afterwards I had a bite to eat at one of the cafeterias and rested my feet for a while. After lunch I headed up through the back exit, past the inverted pyramid, and took a short nap in the park by this giant octagonal pond.

I finished up the day by walking back to the Notre Dame to grab a Nutella crepe before heading back to the apartment. We both decided to take the metro back to the train station when we left at about 6 PM and we made it back to Karlsruhe just past 11 PM without any mishap.

[Editor's Note: I'm having some difficulties with the Internet in my apartment right now, so I will get all 474 photos I took in Paris posted as soon as I can. Check back at the photos page to see them when they're up.]

So with that said, "Finally, no more walking!".