Salut! Day 2 got off to a great start. Started the morning with a Pain au Chocolat, which is basically a crossaint-like pasty wrapped around semi-sweet chocolate. It's very yummy & I'm letting the fact that I'm walking so much make up for the fact that it's probably not the healthiest breakfast. But I figure, ehh, I'm in France, might as well ignore the nutritional content of everything!
I had originally planned to hit up Notre Dame & St Chapelle this am but it was pretty overcast & starting to rain, so I decided to change plans & went to the Musee d'Orsay instead. The d'Orsay is a smaller museum that is actually an old, rennovated Train Station. The most famous museum in Paris is of course the Louvre, but I get a little bit of Museum ADD, so I am actually not going to the Lourve this trip... I read of many people getting lost in there, which would be pretty easy since they have 35,000 exhibits.... so yah, I'm avoiding that museum. Anywho, I found my way to the d'Orsay, and thanks to this 2 Day Museum Pass I purchased, I was able to bypass the line, and was the 6th person in when they opened the doors at 9:30. I was pretty much at the Orsay to see the Impressionis artists like Monet, Renoir, etc, so I headed to that area first & had the Monet room all to myself. Pretty cool considering the fact that this is the high season over here. So if anyone plans a trip to Paris, the Museum Pass is a must! I wandered around the Museum for about an hour & saw paintings like this...
My next stop was the Rodin Museum. This is a museum that has a building with exhibits & then a garden full of different statues. I actually skipped the indoor part & headed out to the gardens. The gardens were beautiful - lots of roses & other flowers like this... which I think is a Peony? Mom, you'd know of course!
I wandered around for quite a bit - much better at wandering in outdoor gardens than I am in a museum I guess. I found the most famous statue in the garden, The Thinker, and some other statues. It was about lunch time so I ate at the outdoor Cafe in the museum. The menu was of course in French.... I probably could ask someone to translate it for me, but well, I guess I have too much 'pride' or something & don't want to come off as a stupid tourist. So I just pointed at something that looked good. It was called a Provencal sandwich. Thanks to my parents, I am probably one of THE least picky eaters. So thank Mom & Dad. Makes eating here a heck of alot easier! The sandwich was actually really good - sort of a Tuna w/ sundried tomatoes, and a cheese of some sort.
Oh, and Dad - I saw this & thought of you! My dad has a fascination w/ Lion statues... especially at entrances to houses, etc - he's waiting for my mom to come around to the idea of letting him have 2 big gold ones on either side of our driveway... it's not going to happen, so I send him pics of them to remind him of what he's missing. :) It actually looked like they had a wing of the museum dedicated to Lions? Not sure at all, but that's my guess at the translation of the title of the building...
I had originally planned to hit up Notre Dame & St Chapelle this am but it was pretty overcast & starting to rain, so I decided to change plans & went to the Musee d'Orsay instead. The d'Orsay is a smaller museum that is actually an old, rennovated Train Station. The most famous museum in Paris is of course the Louvre, but I get a little bit of Museum ADD, so I am actually not going to the Lourve this trip... I read of many people getting lost in there, which would be pretty easy since they have 35,000 exhibits.... so yah, I'm avoiding that museum. Anywho, I found my way to the d'Orsay, and thanks to this 2 Day Museum Pass I purchased, I was able to bypass the line, and was the 6th person in when they opened the doors at 9:30. I was pretty much at the Orsay to see the Impressionis artists like Monet, Renoir, etc, so I headed to that area first & had the Monet room all to myself. Pretty cool considering the fact that this is the high season over here. So if anyone plans a trip to Paris, the Museum Pass is a must! I wandered around the Museum for about an hour & saw paintings like this...
This is a self-portrait of Van Gogh. I also saw Starry Night (prob my fave painting of all time) and also Monet's most famous prints such as the Water Lillies. I am hoping to make it over to the L'Orangerie Museum at one point as they have this circular Water Lillies painting. After about an hour of wandering, I decided it was time to move on (the ADD started to set in....)
From the Orsay, I walked along the Seine and had my first 'scammer' experience. Basically a guy bends down close to you & picks up a gold ring & asks if it's yours. I don't know the details but they somehow get tourists to pay them a couple of Euro for this. So the guy approached me & I started saying 'No merci' multiple times before he could even start to talk to me. Which he was not happy about, so he threw what looked like a mini-tantrum & sat there & sort of jumped up & down. I was like, whatever buddy, move on to the next sucker. I am really glad I did as much research as I did for this trip - it's good to know what scams to expect so you can avoid them.
My next stop was the Rodin Museum. This is a museum that has a building with exhibits & then a garden full of different statues. I actually skipped the indoor part & headed out to the gardens. The gardens were beautiful - lots of roses & other flowers like this... which I think is a Peony? Mom, you'd know of course! 
I wandered around for quite a bit - much better at wandering in outdoor gardens than I am in a museum I guess. I found the most famous statue in the garden, The Thinker, and some other statues. It was about lunch time so I ate at the outdoor Cafe in the museum. The menu was of course in French.... I probably could ask someone to translate it for me, but well, I guess I have too much 'pride' or something & don't want to come off as a stupid tourist. So I just pointed at something that looked good. It was called a Provencal sandwich. Thanks to my parents, I am probably one of THE least picky eaters. So thank Mom & Dad. Makes eating here a heck of alot easier! The sandwich was actually really good - sort of a Tuna w/ sundried tomatoes, and a cheese of some sort.
I started to meander back to my hotel & decided to walk by the Louvre. I am not going to go in but I figured I might as well actually see it. It is MASSIVE. It's sort of a huge U shape, and each branch of the U could be a museum in itself. All day I have been asking myself - where are all the crowds that I am suppposed to be encountering in Paris during their peak tourist season. I found them. They were all at the Louvre! Really glad I'm not venturing in there. I know it's probably a sin to come to Paris & not see Mona Lisa & the Lourve, but I kind of imagine myself getting lost in there for days. Cripes, I got lost in the Library at UND - no, I am not kidding, you can only exit from the 2nd floor, which they fail to tell the little freshmen.
Oh, and Dad - I saw this & thought of you! My dad has a fascination w/ Lion statues... especially at entrances to houses, etc - he's waiting for my mom to come around to the idea of letting him have 2 big gold ones on either side of our driveway... it's not going to happen, so I send him pics of them to remind him of what he's missing. :) It actually looked like they had a wing of the museum dedicated to Lions? Not sure at all, but that's my guess at the translation of the title of the building...And that was about it for this morning/early afternoon. I headed back to my hotel. Wifi was expensive at my hotel (3 Euro/Min, so almost $10/hr) so I am back at the place I was blogging from last night since it's free over here. It's just a short metro ride from my hotel & it's only about 1 Euro/ride, so much less expensive!
I was hoping to go on a Bike Tour of Paris this evening, but it's been raining on & off for the last 30 minutes or so, so I am hoping the rainy weather passes. The bike tour doesn't start until 7 so hopefully in the next 2 hours the clouds will break....
That's all for today. Tomorrow I am going to Notre Dame, rain or shine, and hopefully St Chapelle. My co-worker, Yulia, has a friend that lives in Paris, so I called her & we are going to meet up for dinner tomorrow night.
Oh, and I have a question for any 'techies' out there! Is there a way to change the appearance of your mouse on the screen? When I use my computer outside, it's dang near impossible to find the 'white arrow' so if i could find something bigger or brighter or something, that would be great... and given how not good I am w/ technology, I don't know if this is possible! :) Thanks in advance! (probably to Kevin, my brother)
I need to get going. There is a mother & her 2 sons sitting next to me & the mother is going postal because she just deleted all the pics on her camera & is blaming her children. Lovely. Oh, and now she's dropping the F-bomb... No wonder Americans have a bad reputation! Salut for now!
3 comments:
Control Panel --> Mouse --> Pointers
To adjust the mouse, go to your control pannel, select mouse, then pointers, and you can make adjustments there. Sounds like you are having a great time - hope the rain stops so you can do the bike tour! It does look like a peony! Have a great day and looking forward to the next blog!
I knew someone from my family would know how to change the mouse appearance! Thanks mom & Kevin! Kevin - tell Andrew I miss 'my Andrew' too! :) Love you guys!
Post a Comment