Paris

My train pulled into Paris mid afternoon and I dropped off my stuff at the hostel and got ready to head out. Getting a hostel in Paris was trickier than any other city on my journey. Almost every hostel I came across in Paris while I was booking required you to book every bed in the room being booked. So you can't get a dorm type room with strangers. They expect you to travel in groups and book a room with as many beds as you need so the rooms are full with people you are traveling with. I could have booked a dorm room, but I would have had to pay for every empty bed in it. So I had to get an individual room, which is more expensive, but I still shared a bathroom. The hostels that do let you book a bed in a dorm room were either all full, or too far away from all the sights. I was only spending two days in Paris, and I was set on dedicating an entire day to the Louvre, so my first day was for checking out as many other sights as possible. I started out with a partial map of the downtown area. All hostels offer maps like this to help guests find things to see. I was walking for a while before I discovered that my hostel is in fact not on this map, and I was walking to who knows where. I realized this just outside a subway station, so I went in and got a day pass and decided to take that everywhere to avoid getting lost. I also noticed I felt kind of uncomfortable in the area the hostel was in, so knowing I wouldn't return until late in the evening, I didn't want to be wandering around. This way I would be able to take the subway right to the hostel that night. I started with Notre Dame. It was near closing time when I got there and they weren't letting people inside anymore, so I only got to see the outside building.



Nearby, I got a shot of what I think is the Hotel de Ville.
My next stop was the Musée d'Orsay.
I would have loved to check it out, but not only was it closed, I had so many other sights to try to visit before the day was over. I went to the Paris Opéra next. The detail on the building was beautiful and intricate. At this point though, I'm noticing that the combination of huge buildings and the settling dusk is making it more difficult to take nice photos, so a lot of them are a bit blurry from this point on. I did the best I could to save them with Mac's iPhoto.


You'll also notice that there are a lot of light posts in my photos. I've always liked the way old light posts look with their intricate detail. I find in a photo they can set more of a time period and a mood. You will see quite a few in most of my photos! My next stop was Grand Palais


and Petit Palais.
It was really starting to get dark now and there wasn't a lot of lighting on the buildings in this area, so I couldn't really appreciate them. Walking around the area a bit, I caught my first view of the Eiffel tower.

I planned for the tower to be my last stop for the night, so I continued wandering around and ended up in Place de la Concorde. In the centre of the square is an Egyptian pillar with some Egyptian script engraved in it. The first photo of it shows more of the entire square, and the second, after fidgeting with the settings on my camera, shows more of the engravings on the pillar.

Looking back in the direction I had come, I could see the Arc du Triomphe in the distance. It didn't look too far, so I figured I could walk it in about ten minutes. Well, I was wrong, and it took me over half an hour to walk to it, including weaving through crowds. Because of it's surprisingly huge size, I made this depth perception error. I'm glad I did because I ended up walking along a fantastic shopping district with lots of designer labels and some busy restaurants and terraces. The street was completely packed, and though it was around 10:30 pm, many shops were still open for all the crowds. After browsing around a bit, I made it to the Arc du Triomphe.

Afterwards, I headed to Trocadero, but it was so dark that I really didn't see anything impressive there, though it was on my map as a place to check out. I could see the Musée de l'Homme, but it wasn't much to look at outside in the dark. However, from there, there is a spectacular view of the Eiffel tower, and it was glittering with lights at this point. You can't appreciate the flashing lights in a photo, so I took a short video with my digital camera. My poor Internet connection here makes it difficult to upload videos, so I'm afraid I have to omit it from this post, at least for now. Finally I arrived at the Eiffel Tower after that. Walking towards it from the subway, there were far too many annoying guys selling dinky little souvenirs and harassing you to buy some. Closer to the lawn, guys are actually selling champagne on the sidewalks! Across from the tower, there is a fair. Everything is very busy all around the tower!
I didn't go up the tower, but I did manage to take a picture of myself trying to wink, with the glowing tower behind. I'm glad I came to visit the tower at night, it's much more majestic with the soft yellow lights and the lovers enjoying the evening air all around it. During the day, it really is just a pile of symmetrical metal bars. Perhaps I've been brainwashed by the media and the association it makes between romance and the Eiffel tower, but I admit I found the isosceles triangle of metal and yellow lights looming above me very hypnotic.
I headed back to the hostel at this point, around 12:30 am, because I didn't want the subways to close for the night on me.

The next morning I headed to the Louvre. I sat outside it and ate a fresh Grand Marnier crêpe before heading in. I was sitting at St. Germain L'Auxerrois


and had a view of the back of the museum.
The somewhat controversial pyramid at the entrance to the museum wasn't as large as I thought It would be, but I didn't think it looked bad.
My first stop, as always, was the ancient Egyptian exhibit. I didn't know they took so much care in planning the structures they built. They used the same methods we do now, like practicing drawings on grids and building models, like these pillars.

I didn't understand the Egyptian ruler very well, but I thought it was neat. The little script I read about it said it is indeed uniform, and each unit is a of a size that is a bit larger than a centimeter.
This is an Egyptian structure where a Pharaoh chiseled off a former Pharaoh's name and replaced it with his own. You can see a depth difference in the engravings. I guess he was too lazy to make his minions build a new one.

I haven't often seen the inside of the later sarcophaguses. I didn't know they etched the figure of the deceased in the bottom of the sarcophagus, like the chalk drawings at crime scenes!


I never noticed, but the earlier sarcophaguses are designed like those layered dutch dolls! This photo didn't turn out so well because there were a lot of people around this exhibit, so it was tough to get a clear shot.
I also got to see a mummy with all the religious dressings and cloths on it.
When Pharaohs are laid to rest with all the things they will need in the after life, like their organs and some riches, they are also lain with enchanted representations of workers to do things for them in the afterlife, such as agricultural work. The later dynasties apparently went with smurfs.
Sometimes, they wouldn't use representations, but bury humans instead of smurfs, perhaps servants to the Pharaoh during their reign, before they die naturally. The Louvre has a book of the dead, which is full of spells to make sure the dead are taken care of in the afterlife and can use what they are buried with. One necessity is to pay dues to Imhotep, the god who guards the cross into the afterlife. If you didn't have the proper payment, this dude eats you.
Egyptians worshipped many animals besides cats. In the exhibit of mummified animals, the most interesting ones were the goat with the original horns intact, and the 2.44m long alligator.

I also came across petrified food, like fruit and bread that was pretty yucky.

After the Egyptian exhibit, I wanted to see Italian, French and Spanish paintings. Most of them are religious paintings. I took photos of the ceilings and rooms of the museum; if the Louvre was empty, it would still be an amazing building with all the work that's gone into it's interior design.
Naturally, I checked out the Mona Lisa.
The room was positively packed, as expected. But I didn't know there would be hundreds of people there! No one could get closer than ten feet from the painting, and there was security everywhere. The photo is a bit blurry because the crazy pack of humans were all pushing and shoving. And once they were in a spot they could see the painting, they wouldn't leave! So the room kept filling up, and you could never get a better view. We've all seen copies of the Mona Lisa dozens of times, but the original was darker and more colourful than I expected. I knew it was a small painting though. I browsed through the Italian paintings for a while and really liked this massive one. It is so involved and detailed, you can look at different parts of it and get a whole different sensation and almost see through the eyes of all the different subjects.


Afterwards, I ventured over to the French paintings. I found I preferred them.
The next one looks unfinished, as some of the subjects are only outlined with pencil and are not coloured. I didn't write down the artist, so I can't be sure if this is purposeful or not.

I actually could feel the cold looking at this one. At first I saw the beauty of the glaciers, then I saw the torment it was imposing on the subjects, and instantly felt the two immensely contradicting sides nature can show humanity.
This painting looked so lively and joyous. The colours and dated subjects somehow reminded me of the fair in Mary Poppins!
Some artists I'm happy to say I saw are Monet, Dalí, Da Vinci, and Michaelangelo.

Next I found my way into the stunning Apollo Gallery. So much work went into the design of the room to honour the royal families and to properly display their treasures, I found myself equally if not more impressed with the room itself.

The Coronation Crown of Louis XV lies here. I didn't take a photo of it because I could barely see it myself through the forest of people gawking at its massive diamonds. I figured you could see images on the link that would do it more justice. Finally, I saw the famous statue of the armless Aphrodite.
The clever curators put this statue way up on a pedestal so the mobs of people could all appreciate it. I did in fact spend the entire day at the Louvre, from open in the morning, to closing time. I managed to see about half the exhibits, including running through half of the ancient Greek and Roman artifacts (I was able to walk through and properly enjoy the other half). I did see the Medieval Moat on the lower level, but that was only because I was trying to find the exit!

Many people would think that it is ridiculous to try to enjoy Paris in a mere two days, and I can't say that I disagree. However, trying to see so much on a budget, quick visits are more economical, and I DID get to see a lot! So I'm satisfied with my brief experience of Paris. It really is as incredible as every says.

I headed to the train station to catch the night train to Rome. The train station is quite poorly laid out, and I couldn't find the luggage lockers where I had left my luggage for the day. I asked about half a dozen different clusters of cops, many of which were quite rude, but I eventually found my bags. My couchette on the train could sleep six, and I was only sharing it with one young guy from China. He did not want to chat. At all. He went to sleep at 7:30 pm. A French girl joined our car later on. We chatted a bit, but called it a night shortly after. We were abruptly awoken by border officials in the middle of the night, who demanded we leave our room and squish in the little hallway while they searched our bags. The girl I was with says she travels night trains often, and had never seen this before, and was quite irritated. Even the gentleman who worked on the train was dumbfounded. It was terrible! A couple hours after that, the guy got off at his stop, before sunrise. Being in a tiny room, his moving around awoke me. Just after sunrise, the girl got off at her stop, which also awoke me. The earplugs really helped though. I'm sure I would have been awake all night without them. Another couple of hours later, I woke up to get off at my stop, but we got in and hour and a half late, which is an hour and a half I could have been trying to sleep. I was really groggy my first day in Rome thanks to my first experience on a night train. I also was swaying back and forth all the next day because I still felt like I was on the train, like sea legs. Never again!