You know, for a relatively short stay in Paris, I have a lot to blog about, I suppose because it's Paris. And although I'm sure that many of you reading this have basically already seen everything in the picture's I'll be showing over the next few days, those pictures are still worth showing.
Anyway, while Kristen spent the weekend with her parents, Fernando and I went to Paris, where we stayed in Man-Yan's apartment. We basically only had one full day to do things, because the latest train on Sundays leaves at 3:25PM, but a lot of things (both exciting and weird) happened.
Let's start off with the weird. First, while we were at the Eiffel Tower, Fernando heard some ladies having a huge argument... in the bathroom! We wonder what they were fighting over to create such a scene at the toilettes. But wait, things get weirder later on!
After our long day, Fernando and I returned to the apartment. On the outer door to the courtyard, we heard some people inside and just thought it was some people having a chat. But once we opened the door, we realized that it was actually the police arresting some British guy. The British guy was handcuffed on the ground and was being very verbally belligerent, but let's just say the police got the best of him. When the guy yelled "I'm going to break your nose!" I was reminded a little bit of the "Black Knight" scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Then, when he yelled "you think you're so smart???" the French policeman replied (in English) something like "well, I'm smarter than you!" ZING!
Anyway, Fernando and I kind of freaked out at first, but realized after a bit that it would be safe to walk around. Upstairs in the apartment, we looked into the situation a tiny bit. The only things we could notice were: the sound of glass shattering; the policemen later taking the man away and putting him into a truck, where the dumb guy was still being belligerent; and the policemen going up into the opposite half of the complex and checking in a room up there.
We think that everything in the apartment ended up okay, because the police never came back, but we still have no idea what the British guy was doing in the first place to get himself in trouble like that. On the way out the next morning, we noticed that the door to the opposite side of the complex had a broken pane of glass with what looked like a little bit of dried blood on it. Yuck. Anyway, I didn't find anything in the news about it so the guy was probably just causing trouble up in the room the police checked out.
Moving on... our first destination yesterday was the Louvre, which is not too far from where we stayed. The museum's building is huge... along the Seine River, three bridges run to the Louvre. In the courtyard is the obligatory statue of Louis XIV.
And of course there is I.M. Pei's giant glass pyramid, which looks a little out of place, but which makes more sense to me once you see the lobby below.
I don't have any pictures of the lobby, sadly, but I thought it was nicely designed. The pyramid also looks nicer, I think, from the inside.
Every one of the many rooms in the museum had its own personality, and many of them were ornately covered in artwork from wall to ceiling to wall.
And the museum, having one of the largest and most valuable collections in the world, was home to many works of art you've probably seen, such as:
Liberty Leading the People
Winged Victory (Nike)
Venus de Milo
Virgin of the Rocks (there is also a copy in London)
Of course, the most famous work of art in the Louvre is the Mona Lisa. So many people see that specific painting that they have an actual roped-off line to get close enough to see it. We were able to get a picture reasonably close up, but I thought this one, showing a little bit of the crowd, was more appropriate.
Even amongst all the famous works, you still can't neglect the other pieces of art in the museum, of which there is a nearly endless supply. In fact, many of them are just as good or even better than the "famous" ones. This one was kind of creepy.
And here's a portrait of Frédéric Chopin! I think it's the same exact one that is on the cover of a book of Chopin piano pieces that I have.
This room here was INSANE. It had a series of 24 paintings by Peter Paul Rubens, which were actually made to be laid out in a room such as this. These paintings were commissioned by Marie de Medici and depict her life, from her birth to the adulthood of her children.
Our stay at the Louvre was exciting and refreshing. Sadly, we were pressed for time. Such a museum definitely requires more than one day to fully appreciate. Also, it may be surprising that the museum does not have a comprehensive collection of French Art! I did not see a single painting by Money, for example. All of the "famous" French paintings are across the river, at the Musee d'Orsay, which we sadly didn't have time to visit.More from Paris over the next two or three days!
so awesome!!!
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