Together in Paris

Today was long once again! Glad to be back home in Tours though. 

For our weekend in Paris we were given a two day museum pass which would let us into all the museums at no extra cost, it also let us skip lines which was such a blessing. 

 

Museum pass box!

Our first stop was Rodan, he did sculptures and stuff.

 

The thinker.

 

Still thinking about something.

 

The museums building, although most of it was in the garden.

 

The kiss.

 

I forget what this is called but Madame recommended it. 

 

Part of the gardens, it was a little wet but still pretty.

 

Gates of hell I think, some sort of gate.

 

And I thought my brother had big feet.

Next was off to Musée d'Orsay. This one you weren't supposed to take pictures. (Which I totally don't understand, these are all old pieces of art, Degas and Monet and VanGogh etc, there are billions of pictures out there of them.) So here are some pictures.

 

Clock thing was pretty cool.

 

Bad picture of the amazing view.

 

It is an old train station sorta like the Durham Museum and I saw Tours so I had to take a picture. 

That was the end of Saturday. Sunday Paige and I went back to Notre Dame for Mass. Then we went to the Louvre. I actually don't care that much for art museums, whoops. I wanted to see the old moat and that was it, but of course not all we did. I was in a pretty sour mood though and I feel bad for Paige because my shoes were wet and all I wanted was to not be in them.

 

Ancient wall.

 

More ancient wall.

 

Believe it or not, still more ancient wall.

 

This looked familiar. (I forget what it is)

 

Venus de Milo

 

Okay I know this is a sculpture but it looked so soft I just wanted to take a nap on it.

 

Winged victory.

 

I forget why I have this picture.

 

As close as I felt like getting to the Mona Lisa (La Joconde) I feel bad that I don't care enough to want to get close but at the same time I didn't see the point. 

 

We got lost and ended up in the nearly empty (of people) African/Island (I believe those were the categories) art. I actually found the contrast between cultures interesting. Much different from the styles of paintings and sculptures and whatever else on the other floors.

We had several hours to kill today (Bastille Day) so we went to Galleries Lafayette. 

 

The outside was deceptively nondescript.

 

The inside was humongous and overpriced. 

The French independence day is celebrated differently than I expected. There was a parade this morning that I half listened to on the tv. (Two of the others on the trip actually went though.) It was mostly a military function but there was also a lot of stuff about representing peace between countries at this point after the great war. Doves were there at some point. The actual streets and people were quiet and laid back. In the United States I would start hearing fireworks at midnight and they would continue basically all day. (And they aren't even legal in my state.) Tonight I heard them for about an hour. I'm used to being worried about overly drunken patriots everywhere. Not the case here. It really is just a more conservative culture in that sense. Well I'm tired as usual, leaving you with this: 

 

Bastille metro stop for Bastille day!

 

And Mount and France repping with French club shirt. 

 

P.S. Today's title dedicated to my wonderful bestie who loves the movie I got it from.