Woke up early, on our way to the Louvre today, I’d booked tickets for 10:30. Stopped off for a Starbucks, got the metro. Or at least I did, the doors closed and Song got caught in them and had to get out, leaving me to disappear into a tunnel. I managed to shout “next stop” and got off at the following stop and hoped she’d heard, which she did, and were reunited. I think that’s the longest we’d been apart this trip.
Got to the Louvre at around 10:20, and there were thousands of people queuing in different lines. I asked one of the staff which was our queue, expecting to be directed to a short one; nope, we were told to get to the end of one that had a few hundred people in it. I told Song we shouldn’t bother, but she said we should stay but decide, depending on how long we waited. I asked a staff person how long before we got in, she said between 20 and 30 minutes. I was sceptical, but the queue started moving.
25 minutes later we were in, along with 15000 other people. We decided to head straight for the Mona Lisa – I know it’s a cliche but since we were here, we should go and have a look. There were signs pointing to it and we followed the crowds into the room where the painting was, with hundreds of people in front of it taking photos but I managed to get a good shot.
It was a one way system so we went out, then did a loop via Greek Antiquities (Venus de Milo) and went back to look at the other paintings we zipped past on our way to the Mona Lisa, including 4 others by Da Vinci.
Decided it was time to sit down and eat, we queued up for about 20 minutes at a cafe inside, and I had a chicken roll, juice and pastry, Song had a quiche. Cost 27.60 euro ($50!!!, a combination of a weak Aussie dollar and a captive clientele).
Carried on through the different galleries, ended up in the Dutch Masters and there were about 10 other people; we could have been in a different building. Kept going for another couple of hours, saw Napoleon’s apartments which were lavishly decorated and furnished. There was also a large collection of snuff boxes which was not to be sneezed at.
Decided to leave, but found it hard to navigate and ended up visiting every gallery and room in the place, through the Greek statues, Egyptian carvings and mummies, until we finally found the exit, after spending 4 hours inside. Picked up the backpack from the locker and walked around the corner to the Palais Royale.
Got on the metro and headed back to the hotel, got out at the stop nearest the hotel but decided to get something for dinner now rather than go back to the hotel and then have to come out again. We went to the same restaurant we went to the day before, but they weren’t open, so wandered around before deciding to just go back to the hotel after all. Went back when they were open, Song had an andouillette sausage with mashed potatoes, I had confit of duck with potatoes, and a glass of pinot noir. Mine wasn’t very good, swimming in garlic, Song liked hers. Walked back to the hotel and watch TV downloads.
Tomorrow is our last day here, we haven’t decided what to do but are thinking about going to the river and maybe the champs-élysées for a wander and some shopping.
Song got some good photos.
