France: Day 3 Paris Tour:
This was a Wow-Day! Wow, we did it all! From the Eiffel Tower (where Buffalo Bill officiated the opening in 1889, with a troupe of Indians (their word) who scaled the outside top to bottom. The Tower was meant to come down after the World Fair, but became useful and essential for radio transmission, especially during WWI. And then the obvious, but forgotten reason why Paris was spared during WWII— Nazi Occupation. Then to the statue of George Washington who died at about the same time as Napoleon took over.
Champs Elysèes and Arch d’Triomphe—Napoleon went through the arch feet first when he died and his body was brought back to Paris. Fouqets, the cafe where Hemingway hung out, hoping to meet James Joyce…
As you can see, hours of information and then finally Notre Dame from the outside—very clean and brand new! And a walk to St. Chapelle where we couldn’t get in without tickets… we’ll take care of that for next week!
This was our special day for the Louvre. Henri/Hank did a terrific job of guiding us through the Caravaggio paintings, Da Vinci, and Rafael. then we did the Mona Lisa—same smile as the other Da Vincis!
Not too long after that, I asked Hank if we could slip away to the Egyptian exhibits, with a specific agenda. He gave some instructions, directions, and a wave good bye. Gosh the Louvre is gorgeous, and big! I had to ask two guards if we were going in the right direction, but we got there and basked in hieroglyphs, reading the name of Ramses and searching for more.
The thing we were looking for, however, was in a section of the Egyptian collection that is closed on Fridays!! Our one day. Trés dolore. From there, we went in search of the special exhibit on Antoine Watteau, the pierrot painter.
Watteau (early 1700s) painted darling, sad, white clowns with ruffled necks. We toured the small room in just a few minutes then headed off to the gift shop and the inverted pyramid to meet our group.
Group travel is different and a bit difficult, but Viking takes us to great places!
Back on the ship, we did the usual stuff, then after a lovely dinner with new and interesting friends (Eric, Deborah, Christine, and Keith), we stuck around for the French lesson,which was advanced enough for me to both impress the teacher and learn a few things! So there we have another day.
We are on the move now as we sleep, so tomorrow we won’t be in Paris anymore! OO la la!la la!