Today was a very long day. After breakfast, we took the metro to the Louvre, which I liked a lot. We did a quick run through of all the highlights, and I was very surprised at how different the Mona Lisa seems in person. It's an image we've all seen a million times before, but for some reason, it just looks like a completely different painting on that wall by itself. Afterwards, we went off by ourselves to try and see the crown jewels. We were told it was going to be open in five minutes, but after waiting half an hour, we decided to leave and see the Napoleon apartments. There were some crown jewels on display there anyways, so it worked out. As it turns out, the Louvre is very difficult to navigate. We got lost a couple times and went in a complete circle at least once. But overall, I really wish I could have seen more and spent more time there. The group I was with wanted to go the gift shop and eat early, and I still wanted to see some exhibits if I could, but I didn't want to go off by myself and get lost, so I stayed with them. I ended up getting a museum guide in Italian for my mom, because she loves the Metropolitan in New York City, but she's never been to Paris to see the Louvre, and I'm sure she would love it. We had lunch at the Italian place in the cafeteria, and the server told me I spoke French very well :)
After lunch, we went to the Rue St. Honoré/Faubourg St. Honoré to see the very expensive shopping district and the Madeleine. It was very interesting walking around all the very expensive and ritzy shops. It reminded me a lot of Portofino and Old Oxford Street in London. We walked through Hermès and that was shocking. There were people buying 320 euro scarves and rich mothers buying their spoiled daughters expensive watch bands. It was almost like going to the zoo or a safari to me to see all the exotic animals in their native habitats... Michael stepped on a rug that was on sale for 14,500 euros. I went across the street afterwards to look at the Cartier windows with all of the sparkly diamonds... There were some really beautiful things there. We went to a tea shop afterwards, which looked very nice but I didn't get anything, and then we went to the Madeleine which was really spectacular. I was not expecting how grand it was on the inside. It just doesn't seem quite so big on the outside. Maybe because the outside is so linear and the inside has so many curves and domes. I'm not sure, but it was very unexpected. While we were walking around, just as Professor Lorenz was telling us about the hotels where celebrities usually stay on that street, we saw a crowd of teenage girls, and I thought “Justin Bieber must be in town.” Turns out he was.
Next we went to the Tuilleries and the Orangerie to see the Monet waterlilies. I liked them. They weren't quite what I was expecting since I was picturing very large but also very tall paintings of the garden at Giverny with the bridge and everything. But I sat down and really looked at them for a bit with Lisa which was nice.
We came back to the hotel after that to relax a bit and I did a bit of relationship counseling over the phone... We'll see how it goes. Then some of us went to dinner and a very nice French restaurant and I had shredded carrots with vinaigrette, though I was expecting a balsamic vinaigrette, and I got something extremely acidic and a bit spicy... It almost tasted like sauerkraut, which was weird and I didn't like too much. I had a steak which tasted good but was very hard to cut and chew because of all the fat and tendons. And for dessert, Randi and I shared a chou chantilly which was sooo delicious. Chantilly is just a better version of whipped cream.
We came back to the hotel after that to relax a bit and I did a bit of relationship counseling over the phone... We'll see how it goes. Then some of us went to dinner and a very nice French restaurant and I had shredded carrots with vinaigrette, though I was expecting a balsamic vinaigrette, and I got something extremely acidic and a bit spicy... It almost tasted like sauerkraut, which was weird and I didn't like too much. I had a steak which tasted good but was very hard to cut and chew because of all the fat and tendons. And for dessert, Randi and I shared a chou chantilly which was sooo delicious. Chantilly is just a better version of whipped cream.