Pyramids, Islands, and Ice Cream.

Today we went to the Louvre. We set out to find the Mona Lisa first in hopes that it wouldn’t be too crowded. No such luck. The painting seems to have been moved to a very large room in which there was a huge crowed gathered to see it. It was really funny to see this small painting in comparison the massive gathering of people there to see it. We then made our way to the ancient Egyptian sections, one of my favorite periods of art. We explored grave stelai, hieroglyphics, sarcophagi, papyrus scrolls, and canopic jars. It was really cool and interesting to see. However, the Louvre has such a large collection that it all started to look the same. After this we looked at the Venus de Milo and other Greek and Roman Sculpture and I gave Claire a mini lesson on dating figures by female hair styles. We finished off our trip by viewing Napoleon’s Apartments. They were even more gilded than Versailles…



We then made our way over to the Ile de la Cite to visit Saint Chapelle and Notre Dame. Sainte Chapelle is the royal chapel that was built by King Louis IX in his “Court Style” Gothic architecture which influenced Gothic architecture throughout Europe, including Westminster Abbey. We had to wait for almost an hour just to get into the chapel because it is in the same complex as the Court of Justice. So we had to go through security more strict than the airport. I don’t know if it was worth the wait, but the stained glass that covers every wall of the chapel was magnificent.

Notre Dame was incredible too. It is so massive. Thankfully there was no wait here and the entrance was free! We walked around inside admiring the impressive Gothic architecture and stained glass.

After this we walked across the bridge to Ile St-Louis to have ice cream at Bertillon, a famous ice cream shop. A lot of the flavors were French words that we didn’t know so we ended up getting chocolate. It was really good. Their ice cream is very rich and creamy. We sat on a wall over looking the Seine to eat our ice cream and enjoy the nice weather. As we were finishing up our ice cream an interesting old French man started to sing, Louis Armstrong style, on the street corner across from us.

After all the walking we did the past couple days we decided call it a day and head back to our hotel early. On our way back we stopped at this little shop that we’ve gone to the past couple days to get some food for dinner. The nice old man who is always there recognized us and was excited to see us again. He doesn’t seem to speak English and we don’t really speak French so we just end up saying “bonjour” and “Merci” to each other. Its kind of funny and nice to have this routine.