Started off a tad bit late. Apparently my body was not tricked and I slept until 8am Miami time…2pm. Slept straight through but I felt like a champ upon waking. An alarm may have been helpful.
Of to Le Louvre. Just a 15 minute walk. I see it in the distance and It’s so large that I’m almost scarred. It looks like a palace. It’s probably the biggest building I’ve ever seen with the exception of a New York scrapper. Finally make my way in and OOOoooo dear God!! It’s as if I’ve never even been to a museum before. Thank goodness I have because if all that other art had to come live here too then this place would explode at the seams. It’s absolutely amazing. I immediately surmise that I could never see this all in 1 day or even 1 month. A day pass is 10 euro and a year is 30 if you ask the information desk and make your way to a small membership office. Got it and off to the museum corridors to find drowns of people. Some totally confused and others with a glare of confidence and glee, like they were born to be here. I find myself in the former category until I acquire my membership card complete with a photo. I flash it about like it’s my business, did I mention you get to cut lines with it. That’s right, instant rock star.
The walls are packed with masterpiece after masterpiece. I see crowds snapping photo’s like the paparazzi. The celebrity sighting is the Mona Lisa herself. It’s so much smaller than I imaged and not nearly as impressive as the wonders all about her. Please forgive me Mona. Did you know that Mona used to live in Napoleon’s bedroom?
After a hefty dose of history in art, I make my way down the Champs-Elysees. The streets are a bustle as the city gears up for tomorrows finally of the Tour de France. For a few yards I decide that this place smells just like the mall until I realize that I’m a block from Abercrombie. There is a velvet rope and lines waiting to get in. I had no idea they were so admired? Or are they putting something in that scent to drive people crazy? I continue to the end, high end shop after café after beggar all the way to the Arc de Triumph. I feel like it was built for me having almost entirely crossed the city on foot. I make it back just in time to meet a lovely couple for dinner Eleanor and Xavier. I will be staying at their home the 2nd leg of my journey. Eleanor is an English professor and Xavier a software Engineer. Her English is perfect and she is as beautiful and elegant as her name. Xavier tries his best in English but is a bit shy. We force some sentences out of him and he proves to be just as friendly and warm as his smile. We chat nonstop for 5 hours about everything; our lives, our journey’s and our past. What luck to come across such wonderful and interesting people by chance. We make plans to do it all over again and part for the night. Another perfect ending.
Night…Night….
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