UK & Europe '24 Day 18 - La Louvre et La Tour Eiffel
It's been a full day. There's so much on offer in Paris and we covered a bit of territory today. Our first stop was the Louvre Museum, so we got up early, knowing we were going to be navigating the public transport system for the first time. It turns out it was pretty easy. The lady at the station's ticket counter even understood my butchered version of her language and I successfully purchased two three day tickets to get around.
We didn't have to wait long to get into the museum, but it's definitely worth booking because there are masses of people who have already, and I doubt you'd get in if you didn't.
Not in the mood to follow massive crowds, we ducked upstairs to view the artefacts from the Orient and Egypt. Two thoughts ran concurrently through my mind as I looked at display cases full of ancient statuettes, stones, weights, bowls, funeral steles and so much more: how incredible it was to be in the room with objects that were made some many hundreds of years ago and at what cost to the countries from which they came am I now viewing them? Sphynxes greet you certain quarters and large sections of wall, entrance ways and decorative stone from ancient temples can all be seen, and there's far too much to be seen at La Louvre, even in one full day.
We eventually met back up with the crowds, and at times there seems to be a slips stream surging you forward to artworks of well-known, or much talked about artists. The bucket-list activity de jour seems to be a selfie with Mona Lisa, and the mob of spectators slowly pulses forward allowing everyone their chance to snap a pic with their new bestie before getting ejected by the efficient staff.
Maybe her expression is simply "stop looking at me, already!"
The crowd around Venus de Milo was less crammed and didn't need the same level of control, but still big.
The paintings are magnificent, as you would expect. Jacques-Louis David's painting of the Coronation of Napoleon and The Raft of the Medusa by Théodore Géricault (pictured) are two that stand out for both their size and the beauty in their detail.
The galleries of busts and greek statues are great to see as well. I was stuck by how artists managed to capture so much expression in the faces of their subjects, particularly when working with marble and other pieces of stone.
Equally as impressive as its contents is the Louvre Museum itself. When you take a minute to acknowledge this was the palace in which the monarchs lived, it wasy to understand how their starving subjects had no issue with rolling a few heads. The ceilings alone are a sight to behold, and I can now see the origins of one of the ceilings in the Swedish palace, which was crafted by a Frenchman back in the day. They're works of art beyond a nice paint job. Some of them have inset sculptures looking down at you from above. Not judging, just looking of course.
The Galerie d'Apollon is where you will find the crown jewels, the gold lining its walls and ceilings (aside from the stream of the crowd) draw you in to this glittering cave of jewels.
The history of The Louvre is on display downstairs, where you can see sections of the mediaeval foundations of the palace. It's truly incredible to see how the palace transformed and grew over the centuries, and we're incredibly privileged to be able to see such a beautifully preserved building and all it holds.
It was time for a quick bite and the most expensive salad in the world (we ate in the Louvre food court after all) ...maybe the creme brulee tipped the price over?
We still felt like we'd benefit from a circuit of Paris to get our bearings, so joined the hop on/hop off bus from The Louvre and took in the sights. Notre Dame is still under repair since the blaze in 2019, progressing as slowly and carefully as you would expect for one of the city's greatest icons, of which there are many.
We coasted past historic stations Gare du Nord (which is a major hub and explains the chaos we encountered on arrival yesterday) and Gare de l'Est, the third oldest station in Paris, through Bastille and past Parc Monceau. I'm not sure I felt any better oriented by the end of the ride, but it was nice to see landmarks that feel so familiar from a lifetime of seeing them in movies. Arc de Triomphe and Champs Elysees but no Eiffel Tower... the route has been altered as the city prepares for next month's Olympic Games. Traffic was very slow and we heard plenty of horns and police sirens, which appears to be la symphonie de Paris, but it doesn't detract from this most beautiful city.
We disembarked at The Louvre, near the other Arc du Triomphe: The Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, which is significantly smaller than the one we all know. Beyond it the grounds of the former palace continue, with public gardens and fountains and what appeared to be an impromptu market. More on that later!
We had decided, by this point, to walk across to the Eiffel Tower, which was only about 30-40 minutes by foot. We passed Pont Alexandre III which is currently obstructed in preparation for the Olympic Games and the nearby Ministry of Foreign Affairs building, and it goes without saying that the architecture in this European city, as with others, is remarkable.
We rounded the the final corner after traversing the streets of Paris and were rewarded with a unique view of La Tour Eiffel, standing there like it was just another part of any old neighbourhood.
As we got closer, it was apparent, of course, that it's not just another structure. People (like us, even!) come from all over the world to see it for reals and I have to say, in all of the pictures I've seen and all of the stories I've heard about it, I did not expect it to be brown, but there you go. Nor did I know until today that there are seventy two names written below the first platform. The tower has a link to the sciences, ingeniously made my Gustave Eiffel when planning the tower, which secured its existence well past the initial twenty years it was meant to last.
There's a glass wall around the entire base of the tower, so you can't walk under it unless you have an entry ticket, and we didn't feel inclined to go up to the viewing platform, opting to relax in the nearby park with a view of the tower as the sun sank slowly to the west.
Warnings abound in Paris about the activity of pick pockets, and I'm not sure if the "market" we saw near the Louvre is linked to such activity, by the vendors don't appear to be welcomed by the local constabulary. There was a similar setup at the bottom of the tower, the men set up either side of one of the pedestrian walkways, their white blankets set up with their trinkets spread out and the invitation to buy a souvenir for one euro. It reeks of tourist scam and it was a polite "non, merci" from us just before a scuffle ensued. In a flash, the purveyors of fine trinkets gathered up their blankets with in-built cords at each corner to make a quick getaway from the police with what had transformed into Santa sacks. One of them was unlucky... he had been targeted directly by the police, his trinkets flying across the footpath and smashing to pieces as he was accosted and detained. Chris very nearly got knocked over in the ruckus, and we didn't even get a free knock-off Eiffel Tower for our troubles! Imagine our delight, then, when relaxing in the park we were approached by a guy with a bucket of grog offering beer or champagne. Non merci was our initial response, followed soon after by variations of "no" "nup" and trying our best not to make eye contact. They were persistent and there were three or four of them working the park approaching every time saying "beer beer, wine wine" and sometimes "champagne". They even had cigarettes on offer on one rotation. It's interesting people-watching in the park between those vendors, who I'm sure are accustomed to legging it from the cops too, and influencers getting their Insta moments in front of the tower, whether it was with fancy yoga poses, hula hooping or laying out their expensive purchases of the day. Mon dieu! Enough!
We'd had an Eiffel lot of fun (I feel like the experience deserved that pun) so decided to head back towards our cosy studio accommodation, and ended the evening with an Italian meal at Le Petit Italien, just around the corner from where we're staying. The food was a gustatory delight and the service was superb. They even gave us a free shot of limoncello at the end of the night, so they must have liked us, too.
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