The Louvre...and handbags

Wednesday - April 24, 2013

Ahh...Wednesday was intended to be the most relaxing day we had.  With no tours booked, my only plan for the entire day was 1) we had to do the Louvre and 2) visiting the Arch de Triomphe

Now, I know that visiting the Louvre is a big deal.  You could spend weeks in the Louvre and not see everything.  But since I was going with my dad, I knew spending a whole day there wasn't going to be possible - so my plan, such as it was, was to spend about 3 hours there (max) and hit the highlights that you can't miss (Mona Lisa, Nike of Samothrace, Michelangelo's Slaves, etc) and get out before he has a meltdown.  I knew that the place was going to be huge and confusing and without some kind of solid plan/itinerary in place this could go horribly wrong (well, for my dad, not for me.  I could wander in there for weeks as long as someone brings in a cot for me in crash in), so I bought a book to act as a guide before we went. I consulted he-who-knows-all-about-touring-Europe, Rick Steves...by consult it means I Googled his name along with "Louvre guide" and I ended up with an old book, Mona Winks which has a number of self-guided tours through Europe's largest and most famous museums.  I thought about booking this tour with Easy Pass, but ultimately decided against it as 1) I wanted Wednesday to be "do whatever we want day" (though it really was do whatever I want); 2) I didn't want to restricted to a set schedule and 3) my parents were all toured out at this point and I thought we should have break before we went to Rome - where once again we have 2 scheduled tours.  The next time I return though, I may book the Louvre tour just so I can mindlessly follow behind a guide instead of trying to decipher a map on my own and shoving my way through a gazillion people - including a lot of my own peeps.  Oh Lord save me from crazy ass fobs.  Especially Chinese crazy ass fobs.  We got stuck in line trying to get in through the Denon entrance because some crazy China lady there with her tour REFUSED to hand over her ticket.  She threw a fit and refused to give it to the chick working there.  Not that she spoke French, she just yelled in Chinese.  My mama finally went up there to try to smooth it over as she at least could speak English.  My mom finally coaxed the crazy lady into turning over her ticket and once they let her in, the crazy bitch just left!  Is it  mean to say I hate my own people?   And people think Americans are rude.  Whatever.

Anyhoo, the day started with us sleeping in.  By sleeping in I mean we (I) woke up around 8 am or so.  And my dad was once again sent out to forage in the wilds of St. Germain des Pres for food so we don't go all crazy on him from hunger.  He was creative this time - he bought not only a baguette and croissants, he managed to buy a raisin croissant as well.  Oooh, exciting.  Except I don't like raisins, and they do, so they split that while I once again slopped massive amounts of Speculoos on my baguette and ate my croissant.  Oh, did I also mention that because I can't survive on coffee without creamer I had brought two boxes of International Delights French Vanilla single serve liquid creamer with me and toted it wherever I went?  Yes, I am a loser.  But a loser with delicious, delicious coffee.

Anyhow, since the Louvre was open late on Wednesdays and I wanted to do the Arch de Triomphe at night for the view, our morning was pretty free.  Which for my mama meant shopping!  And she didn't want to go to Le Printemps or Lafayette because as she said "all the China people are there", so that left Bon Marche, which was just a ten minute walk away.  We walked over and I have to say - eh.  They had all the big labels (except Chanel, but considering how much money I've already spent on the trip just walking into Chanel would've made my credit card spontaneously combust) but we wandered a bit listlessly.  Then we looked at some Le Crueset pots until we realized that there ain't no way we were lugging 20 pound pots to Rome, onto a cruise ship, back to Rome, and to LA.  So we went home.  (sob)

Once we were back at the flat, I went online and started looking up prices for Louis Vuitton.  I honestly don't know why I specifically picked LV.  There are some people who lurve the LV.  I don't happen to be one of them.  I do have one - I blew my very first paycheck on it because I'm thrifty and good at financial planning like that.  But I bought one that was too small for all the crap I lug around with me that in my mind - I just have to have for my survival - so I rarely use it since I can't fit the kitchen sink in it.  But once I started looking at the retail prices in France as compared to that in the States and realized that it's over $100 less in Paris, I became a little more interested.  Really, taking into account the 12% VAT return AND the 9% (sometimes 10%) sales tax in California - you can save a pretty big chunk of change buying one of those purses in Paris as oppose to Cali.  This being said, I looked up the nearest location (5 minutes away - I was not going to go all the way to Champs-Elysee and fight through all the crazy Chinese people there buying 9 bags at a time like they cost pennies) and dragged my mama (and dad) there.  My poor dad waited outside anticipating I was going to have to get a second mortgage on my house, but I already knew what I wanted.  And being the person that I am, I talked my mama into getting a new bag too.  So here's our bounty:

my mama's bag - the Neverfull in MM in the Monogram Idylle print (blue)

my bag - I got the Totally in MM in the Classic Monogram pattern

So, even though I told everyone that I wasn't buying a bag in Paris...my dumb ass bought a bag in Paris.  All told, I saved over $300 on each bag - close to $400 when taking into account the VAT, the sales tax, and the lower retail pricing in France.  Yay for me!

Alas, our day does not end in Louis Vuitton.  We walk back to our flat where we put the bags down and hoof it to the Louvre, which is about a 12 minute walk from Rue de Buci.  

my baba on the Pont du Carrousel

Place du Carrousel entrance

we're here!  (or..we're heah!)

the magic pyramid...you gotta wonder who thought it was a good idea to built a big ass glass pyramid in the plaza of a 16th century palace.  But whatever - it's iconic, you gotta take a photo with it.  I mean dude, it was on my high school history book's cover!

So, after we oohed and ahhed (and we oohed and ahhed a lot) over the fact that we were actually there, we busted out our Museum Passes and cut to the front of the line (yay!) and made our way into the pyramid.  I was cognizant of the fact that the Louvre is not just a museum with lots of art inside, but that this was actually a functioning palace that housed the kings of France until Louis XIV moved his court to Versailles, so I was excited about seeing the interior of the building, not just what it housed.  And what an interior it is!  As we were walking through the rooms we had our necks craned to look at the architectural details in each room and admire the murals and carvings on the ceilings and walls.  My mama actually thought the Louvre was prettier than Versailles and thought the kings were stupid to abandon the Louvre for Versailles.  I then gave her history lesson on why Louis the XIV removed his court to Versailles, which was completely ignored as she kept snapping photos of the ceilings.  

After we sufficiently oohed and ahhed over all the non-arty stuff, we thought it would be good to actually I don't know, see all the stuff the museum itself is famous for?

Michelangelo's Slaves

some nekkid man that Rick Steves said was important in his books, but I've thus forgotten.  However, I took a photo of it, so it had to have had some kind of signifiance

uh, duh.  Wings of Samothrace (otherwise known as Nike)

can you believe it's just at the top of some random staircase?  whatever!

some fancy crown.  I think this was the crown Louis XV was crowned with

This just happens to be a Caravaggio, whom I love

And of course, no visit to the Louvre is not complete without following the throng to the Mona Lisa, or La Giaconda.  I was prepared to be disappointed, and I was.  Now, I'm not an art connoisseur by any means, so perhaps that's why I can't appreciate the ambiguous quality of her smile or whatever gleam is in her eye or the glow in her face or whatever other crap artistic tomes spout.  I just wanted to see it since it's so famous and it would be like, illegal to come to the Louvre and not pay homage to it.  So we shoved our way (and when I say shoved, I mean it literally) to the front of the hordes buzzing around it and took a bunch of crappy photos of it.  I mean, really, we could've just bought a postcard, right?  But how is anyone to know that we were actually there in person?  Of course!  We're going to take another one of our numerous lopsided self-portrait photos!

ugh.  crappy photo

see how small it is!  And how there's a big ass piece of glass in front of it.  And a guardrail.  Really?!

Big ass room with lots of art by Veronese, I mean, HUGE giant works by Veronese.  But is anyone looking at those?  Nope, everyone (including us) is gathered around the Mona Lisa.  Why are we such losers???

see?  Proof!  We were there (awkward faces and poses and neck fat and all)

my baba is blocking it.  Clearly it does not impress him

So, once we've seen the Mona Lisa, we decide to leave since we're all arted out at this point.  But you know what?  It's as we're leaving that we come across what ended up being our very favorite piece in the Louvre.  We have no idea who it's by (because we didn't have the foresight to LOOK AT THE PLAQUE) and what the title is, but here it is:

our favorite work of art in the Louvre

Can you guess why?  look closer

it's my Bento's long lost ancestor!

Yup, because it had a little black and white dog.  Yes, I realize that this is not my Bento.  This dog isn't even a shihtzu (I don't think...), but it's small.  And black and white.  And that's good enough.  My dad is actually the one who saw this and pointed it out and got super excited, so I snapped some photos of it.  And for the rest of the trip (yes, for the next two weeks or so) my dad would make a reference every day about Bento being in the Louvre.  Sigh.  

Anyhoo, at this point we're tired.  So tired that once again, we poop out on dinner.  So instead of a sit down restaurant, I swing by Eric Kayser and buy a sandwich for dinner.  French sandwiches are weird - it's just ONE THIN slice of meat and one slice of cheese with butter.  Who's ever heard of ham and cheese and butter sandwiches?  The French, that's who.  And it is delicious.  But come on, the baguette by itself is already amazing, and if you use good quality butter and cheese (no neon orange "cheese" for the Frenchies), how is it not delicious?  I have no idea what my parents ate because I was so engrossed with my sandwich, and then eating my Speculoos out of the jar (don't judge me).   Ahh...now I want to go and eat more Speculoos out of the jar.

After dinner, we took the metro and made our way to the Arch de Triomphe.  It's very large.  And they make you climb it (sob!).  They have an elevator, but it's only for the disabled and it wasn't operating when we got there (double sob!).  So after going through the underground tunnel to get to the Arch so we don't get run over by crazy Parisian drivers in the roundabout, we flash our Museum Passes and climb the stairs.  These stairs we so much worse than the stairs at Diamond Head in Oahu.  SO. MUCH. WORSE.  

so pretty at night!

stairs at Diamond Head

stairs up the Arch de Triomphe

looking down the stairs.  blech  

So after we wheezed our way up, we get to this place:

we needed to sit down and catch our breath so we didn't pass out

then we saw this.  It looked scary

and it looked scarier up close.  Apparently this is a model/replica (?) of one of the heads on the monument itself

Then there were more stairs.  And we cried.  But we finally got up there!  And we saw this!  (am I using too many exclamation points?!  sorry!)

this happens once an hour, and we managed to catch the very tail end of it.  This is the only pic we got of it

Then we decided, hey!  we should take some photos of us up here!  So we did.  A lot.  And most of them sucked donkey balls because the lighting was so bad, but we got a few where we don't look like monsters.  Just ugly.  

Then we went down.  Because while it's pretty, you can only look at pretty lights for so long.

another lopsided obligatory self-portrait!

And then we took the metro back to Mabillon, across the street from our little apartment.  We finished packing (sob!) and settled in for the night as we were being picked up at 10 am the next morning by Shuttle Inter to take us to the airport for our flight to Rome.  And thus, our time in Paris ends.  

Up next...au revoir Paris!  Buongiorno Roma!