We had really ambitious plans for the day. We were going to wake up early, eat breakfast and head to the Louvre as soon as it opened to avoid the massive line. Since the Louvre opens at 9:00 we decided that we needed to leave the hotel by 8:15 to pull this off. However, I woke in the morning to Colleen sitting up and straining to read the clock. "Does that say 10:00?" she asked. "Yes" I replied. Rather than immediately change plans we decided to grab breakfast, Colleen got a croissant, Lisa had toast and I decided to go for a true Parisian breakfast... Coco Crispies.
We headed to the Louvre and were pleasantly surprised not to see a line out on the street as we did yesterday. But our elatement was short lived once we entered the courtyard. We took a couple of pictures in front of the controversial pyramid before heading off to find the end of the line. We walked and walked and walked and when it seemed like we could go no further we saw the end. We determined that the Louvre was not in our cards for the day. We thought it would be much better in 2010 anyway.Instead we headed across the river to the d'Orsay museum. The line was quite long there too (doesn't anyone work in this city) but we decided to bear it anyway. After 16 or so switchbacks we finally made it inside of the museum. After spending the last hour or more in line, we decided to skip the line for the Van Gogh exhibit which ran the length of the museum and was moving very slowly. Very quickly we discovered why thing were moving so slowly. Apparantly everyone here takes photos of all their favorite paintings. Colleen and I always thought that photos somehow was bad for the art but now I've concluded that allowing photos just takes away from the experience. I could barely glimpse some paintings behind a wall of amateur photographers. It didn't help that everyone in Paris that was not at the Louvre was here with us at the d'Orsay.
Once we got our fill of Monet, Manet, Degas, Renoire and Rodin, we returned to the west bank in search of the Fauchon market. My Fodors guide described it as a "hyper-upscale mega-delicatessen" that sells food from all over the world. I was a little thrown off by the color scheme, hot pink and black, which seemed more fitting for a cosmetics store than an upscale market but it was fun peeking at all the food.
1 comment:
By no means a world traveler -- I HAVE been to Paris twice (LOVED it and would LOVE to LIVE there.) But
when I first saw the picture and the headline -- I thought, no she IS at the Louvre! Then I read the whole entry and understood. In addition, I learned something new. When we were there -- we had beautiful breads and pastries with cheese, incredible coffee, very creamy yogurt, oranges and apples and often hard boiled eggs and deli meats with pickles as choices for breakfast -- but never knew that the ultimate in Parisian morning fare -- was the chic bowl of cocoa crispies!
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