I'm finally catching up with things. The girls are back in school and Jay is just finishing up 3 weeks of intensive German at a language school. He can now converse with the girls a little. The girls keep thinking they'll have their own secret language when we get back but now maybe Dad can crack the code!!
Anyway, back to Paris. This blog also serves as my travel log so even though we've been back for 3 weeks I've got to catch it up! So, if you want to skip Paris, check out my next post!
On the third day in Paris, after freezing on Day 2, we chose to make it an indoor day! We had read the guidebooks which tell you to buy a Museum Pass (let's you into all the major sites and to skip ticket lines) so we breezed right into the Louvre. It was busy but not unbearably crowded. The Louvre's beginnings were in the early 1300's and a succession of French kings kept adding on and remodeling. Some of them actually made it their residence but as a building it was used for quite a number of purposes. Today it is immense - the world's largest art museum. The architecture was amazing, everything from 900 year old frescoedceilings to I M Pei's amazing Pyramide entrance with circular staircase and elevator cylinder in the middle! It was substantially more art than one could view even in several days unless you ran through. I believe I read that they is something like 12 miles of artwork on display. Needless to say, with two kids in tow, we took some guidebooks and hit some of the highlights. Jay returned that night and toured an Etruscan wing but forgot the camera. The kids recognized a few things and actually enjoyed it quite a bit. We even got a personalized Get Well wish for our friend Matt from Mona Lisa!
We raced on to Notre Dame via the subway to catch a 2:00 guided tour in English. It was freezing but the church was a little warmer. The cathedral was built in the 1100's so it is nearly a thousand years old but beautiful. It was one of the first churches to be built using "flying buttresses" as support for the immense walls - these supports of course are topped with a new adornment for that era - gargoyles!! It was too cold for Quasi Modo but the gargoyles were still standing at attention! The tour guide got a little more windy than Dayna could take so she and I went on a photo taking extravaganza of the famed round or "rose windows". Karissa remained glued to the tour guide along with Jay and because of the tour we got to go into the altar area that the normal public doesn't get to. The windows are fabulously beautiful even without bright sunlight streaming through. Unfortunately, because of the weather we didn't get to climb up to the bell tower which was disappointing but not unusual - they open it when they feel like it from what I've heard! The upside - absolutely no lines or crowds!!
Within a few blocks (and a couple of souvenir shop stops) we were back in our cozy warm apartment for some dinner. Afterwards, Jay headed to the Louvre and the girls and I walked next door to the Centre Pompidou with its amazing "inside out" architectural design (everything that is normally hidden is exposed - pipes, escalators etc.) and its Musee National d'Art Moderne. The escalator ride up is pretty cool as you look out over Paris and at the top you get a great view of the hourly light show on the Eiffel Tower (photos courtesy Dayna). The girls decided they preferred the modern art over the classical art of the Louvre. One of Dayna's favorites was this awesome "wedding dress" designed with spray paint and junk (click on the picture to note the baby dolls embedded up near the neckline!). To each his own but it was fun to expose them to some different things and we even saw some Knoll pieces and a tribute to Florence Knoll! Another great day.
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