Block #7 - Paris, again

Oh, Paris, how I didn't really feel the need to come back. No, that's being unkind. I did feel the need to revisit Paris, because I hadn't done some of the things that Paris is most famous for, but I can't exactly say I was excited to go back to Paris. I've been reflecting since we left, and I think France in general has not been my favorite country. Having since been to Italy, and giving in to the urge to compare the two, I like Italy a lot better than I liked France. I think the difference is a sort of national attitude. The French were pretty uniformly indifferent to tourists, whereas the Italians cater somewhat to tourists. I got pretty good at reading a menu in French if there was no English available, as was frequently the case, whereas in Italy, you can hardly pick up a menu that doesn't have at least three languages on it. But this post is supposed to be about Paris, part two, so I should reorient myself to that topic.

When I say that I hadn't done some of the things that Paris is most famous for, mostly I mean that I hadn't been to the Louvre. Nick was really excited to go back, because he felt like he hadn't gotten enough time there the first time around, so we got up bright and early and traipsed off to the Louvre to get our fill of some culture. We went and saw the Mona Lisa, which inspired me to fire off an email to an art friend of mine to find out what exactly all the fuss is about. For us uncultured people who are not exactly impressed by the Mona Lisa, such a big deal is made over it very simple because Da Vinci considered it his masterpiece. So, yes, we make a big deal out of it because he told us we should.

What I found most interesting about the Louvre, actually was behind the paintings. Up until it was made into a museum in the 1700s, the Louvre was the Paris palace of the French kings, and it was constructed accordingly. Especially intriguing (and useful) were the patterns in the floors and ceilings (respectively).





Looking at the picture of the floor, I can already tell that getting those exact angles on the outermost pieces is going to give me fits, but I'm dying to reproduce this in fabric. I'm thinking that I'll do this in black and white, then maybe appliqué something embellishing on the top of it. Or maybe I could do it all black and white, with an equal valued accent stripe somewhere in the middle of the strip set from whence the triangles get cut. Either way, I think this is going to be one of the projects I jump right on when I get home, because I don't really have the materials for it here with me.

After the Louvre, we took a short metro ride over to Napolean's tomb, which was big.



That's about all there is to be said for it. In fact, it's much bigger than it really has a right to be, considering it's taking up prime real estate right in the middle of the city. They didn't even have any noteworthy stained glass or tile work in the building for me to take pictures of. Hmph.

The day after our trip to the Louvre, we went to Monmartre, the neighborhood on the hill just north of the city centre where all the artists hang out to paint. This turned out the be the day of the street performers, as we spent much of the day sitting on church steps and in plazas watching the various brands of street performers that populate the city. There were a few singers, some break dancers, a magician, and (our favorite) a guy that demonstrated incredible handling of a soccer ball, up on a fence post about 2 or 3 ft square. He even went so far as to climb the neighboring lamp post, managing to handle the ball all the way up to the top of the lamppost.

The day was somewhat productive as well, though. We climbed to the dome of the Sacre Coeur basilica, where I got some beautiful pictures of the city of Paris as well as some neat pictures of the detail work on the neighboring spires.







Who knew that they would spend so much time decorating parts of the cathedral that no one would ever really see?

All in all, Paris wasn't the disaster we were expecting it to be, although it still isn't my most favorite city in the world. It turned out to be fun and productive, and altogether a nice place to visit for a couple of days.