Power Paris Part Deux

(photos chronologically go in order from bottom to top,but i'll caption them this way:cat in the wonderful bookshop; the outside of the bookshop/library that i believe was run by brits, since it was mainly english; rose window in notre dame; laura and i at notre dame; the nave of notre dame; stained glass window in st. chappelle; me in the st chappelle; rose window in st. chappelle that apparently depicts armageddon; van gogh painting; laura and i in the musee d'orsay; le jardin de tullieries, le louvre; i've upset the lion; the code of hammurabi; venus; me; me outside le louvre)

Saturday, the second day of the Parisian trip, was the quintessential Power Paris day, since we saw pretty much every important place in Paris. We awoke nice and early, stopped at Angelina's to get some croissants and went straight to the Louvre. Somehow, we managed to see a good deal of the Louvre in about 2 hours. This included the Mona Lisa (La Jaconde), the code of hammurabi, the venus de milo, the winged victory of samothrace (nike), the napolean apartments, the wedding feast at cana by veronese, and conveniently one of the paintings of the battle of san romano by paolo uccello that happened to coincide with the topic of my art history paper. It is a hugely impressive musuem, and it happened to not be very crowded. We did not have to wait in line for the Mona Lisa, though they do have a huge are roped off. Everyone kept telling me how disappointing it was, but i did not find it so at all. I guess since i knew it was relatively small and dark i knew what i was getting myself into. Still, it was pretty cool to see it in person, though it took a while for it to set in. I often see these hugely important works of art or buildings and i just cannot grasp the magnitude of it, so i takes a bit for me to realize that i was actually there.

After the Louvre, we had a quick lunch at a cafe in le jardin de tullieries (luckily, it was a beautiful day saturday). We both had crepes as well: laura had chocolate and i had "creme de marron", or "chestnuts". It was quite good, but i am more of a croissant person myself.

The musee d'orsay was not a far walk, and we made it there at just about the time we had planned. Interestingly enough, the Musee D'Orsay was a large train station that has been fashioned into a museum to hold a number of impressionist paintings. Well it had other things too, but i was mainly interested in the impressionists. There were probably about 40 Monets, including a bunch from the waterlilies series and two of the woman with the parasol (dont know the actual name of that). There were a few Van Goghs as well, and the musuem allowed photography without the flash, so i took a bunch of photos. Laura tried to take a photo of every Monet there so that she could show her mom; she gave up when we hit the fourth room full of Monet paintings.

We left the museum half of the day behind and moved onto the second part: churches! The St. Chappelle closed earlier, so we went there first and waited in line for a bit. I was not sure what the St. Chappelle was until i got inside and saw a church literally covered in stained glass. It was then that i realized i had studied, and been tested on, this structure in my art history class last year. Right. I am a bad student. Each of the 15 sections of stained glass represented something from the Bible, and the large rose window at the end apparently told the story of the armageddon. I did not realize horses were involved in the end of the world, but that's because i am a bad catholic. The St. Chappelle was absolutely stunning, but since it was full of people, and it was a church, it employed a professional shush-er to keep it at a respectable noise level. Everytime the buzz grew too loud you would a very loud: "SSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHH! Respectez le silence!" A bit hypocritical i think. Let's respect the silence of the church by YELLING at everyone to respect the silence of the church. It amused me. I wonder how much shushers get paid...

After this we headed over to Notre Dame, which happened to be having a service at the time. It was a bit crowded, as i assume it normally is, but it was quite special to be able to walk around while listening to the choir. I maintain that music is more important than most people make it out to be. I have been in a countless number of churches and cathedrals, all built and decorated in the most magnificent and ornate fashion to honour God; and the first time i felt a remotely religious experience was in Notre Dame, solely because of the music.

After Notre Dame we headed over to the Quartier Latin, stopping at this intriguing bookshop on the way. It was called "Shakespeare and Company" and must have been run by British people since the majority of th books were in English, not French. The bottom level was a new and used book store, with books covering, quite literally, every inch of the store. The building apparently used to be a monastery and it is quite old, though i don't remember exactly. Towards the back corner is this tiny, narrow, steep staircase which leads up to the "library" section of the building. Apparently you can go upstairs into any of the rooms, sit down on a chair or bed, and read old books til your heart is content. Watch out for the cat though, i got quite a dirty look when he came into the room and found me sitting on his chair. So i got up, and then he was happy again. This bookstore alone makes me want to move to Paris for at least a short period, but i won't, since i am going to live here in England for the rest of my life.

We walked about the Quartier Latin buying scarves and looking in stores for about an hour before we chose a restaurant. I had beouf bourginon for dinner with the most delicious creme brulee for dessert. It was all relatively cheap, though i considered the whole city to be very inexpensive, which is not normal. Life is not as it should be if you go into one of the more expensive cities in the world and think "wow this is cheap!" See what London has done to me?

We had planned on going to a jazz club that night, but they didnt start til very late and we were tired. So we went back to the hotel fairly early...