Paris #2, The Louvre

....We watched the vice-presidental debates and fell asleep knowing our safety would be ensured by a uniformed security gaurd. In the morning, we tried to stop into a local TABAC to get some coffee (because that's where you get coffee in Paris) but it was more like asleezy bar at 10 in the morning than we felt was necessary. The music was bumpin' the guys were smoking, drinking and playing pin ball. We beat a hasty retreat and headed across the street to the train station.

A word about trains in Paris. They are Dirty. They are really dirty and crowded, and full of shady looking characters. Perhaps this is only because we were taking the train to and from where the shady characters live. I was trying my best not to be American, and to keep my english speaking mouth shut.

We bought a pack of train tickets. They were little slips of paper that you slide into the turn stiles and then you get let through. Except when they don't. I don't know why, but our tickets never worked at the Ghetto Station. We would walk up to the gates, have our tickets rejected, look around nervously and then jump the bar. Apparently no one elses worked either because they all jumped the turnstiles, without the nervousness or even tickets. All in front of a camera.

We made it back to Paris with no other mishaps (besides the whole fare-jumping thing). We decided that we were going to die within 10 minutes if we didn't get some coffee into our bodies. So we started walking. We turned our noses up at 3 euro coffee and kept walking. We found a TABAC. Yay! This is where you get coffee in Paris. The day before we had stopped at a TABAC near the Shakespeare bookstore and ordered espressos--because the sign said that cafe noir in a petite tasse was cheaper, I figured that meant espresso--only to find out that espresso is more expensive than a cup of coffee. So, we were trying again.

"Deux cafes"
"espresso?"
"No, cafe"
"Avec creme?"
"yes"

Ok, so we figured we were getting coffee with milk in it. When they arrived we discovered that a Cafe Creme is about as expensive and as crappy as it gets. They were 4.30 a piece, they were luke warm and didn't taste of anything but warm milk. I'm sure there was coffee in there because it was slightly brown. We made scowly faces, drank our coffee and left.

We walked down the Champs Elyise (I forget how to spell it, forgive me). We found cheaper coffee, and the Arch de Triumph. Laura was really excited about the street and the Arch because this is where the Tour de France finishes every year. I'm glad we didn't come to Paris for that. The street was crowded as all get out on this random day in October, I would have hated to see it for the end of the Tour.

It was such a nice day out we decided to cruise around outside. We saw lots of outdoor statues, tried to get into a fashion show, tried to walk into every museum we found (it only worked once--at the Petit Palace, but they kicked us out after a few minutes because we had a backpack). After a few hours of that, we gave in to the Louvre. We went to the Louvre. No one told me there was a castle in the basement, or that the paintings would be interesting. I wouldn't have been so against it. I'm glad we went.

When we were in the Louvre a loud alarm went off. They started saying "Please exit the museum" over the loud speakers in about 6 different languages. The gaurds didn't seem nervous so we didn't leave. Plus, we hadn't seen the Mona Lisa yet.


Here's a photo essay

There's a sculpture garden outside the Louvre. This one was my favorite. It's some guy fighting a minotaur. The minotaur's tongue is hanging out.
This is a model of the castle that was demolished to build the new Louvre in the 16th century.
This is what is left of the original castle--the moat foundations. Yay! I love castles!


Wow!!!




This is the Mona Lisa. It is small and boring.
This is the Wedding Feast at Cannon. You can tell that it's opposite the Mona Lisa because everyone has their backs turned to it.







There was an aerospace exhibition in the Comodore (I think) square...Paris' biggest city square. We found a stealth bomber, and Laura wanted her picture taken with it, and so did this guy in the yellow shirt. Laura walked over to the fence and then he showed up. He was trying really hard to get everyone out of his way so that he could be alone in the picture. Kinda annoying. He coulda just waited, whateves, now we have lots of pictures to remember him with.

See what I mean about "Hey, let's put a giant woman statue on every corner!"? This is an entrance to an underground tunnel. There are about 8 of these in the Commodore square.
What a nice day.