August 3, 2007 by Tiffany.

Today I decided enough with the museums for now: I wanted to walk around.  Fortunately, Andrea gave me some fantastic Paris walking tours that I loaded on my iPod.  I tried the second one today through Saint Michel.  I also ate a delicious lunch and saw the skinniest house in all of Paris!

Not too many photos today since my camera died quite early in the day, although I did see cool stuff like the Sorbonne and Jardin su Luxenbourg.  I’m planning on going back with a fully charged camera at some point.  Jason and I also had some delicious Indian food and later tried out the local Disney Village club Hurricanes.  Super overpriced but fun all the same.  Tomorrow we will be heading out to Normandy to check out the beaches and monuments of the D Day invasion.  We both are really looking forward to it.  Plenty of pics to come on Monday!

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August 2, 2007 by Tiffany.

I figured that I would check out the Louvre today, and if there was some Versailles-esque ticket queue I would head over to the Dali Museum instead.  To my surprise, although there were a ton of people present, ticket sales are much more streamlined, thanks to multiple entrances and several ticket machines.  Within a few minutes I had my ticket, a map and absolutely no clue where to begin.  I was so impressed with the entrance in Napoleon Hall underneath I.M. Pei’s famous pyramid that I decided I would start with Denon Hall today.

There are three sections of the Louvre altogether, and since I enjoyed today so much I decided that I will spend one day on each wing.  Don’t get me wrong, this STILL does not truly allow me to appreciate all there is to offer, but it’ll be enough to say that at some point I walked through every open hall of the Louvre.

Having covered all floors of the Denon section today, I must say that it seems impossible to take it all in.  You’d have to be a freak, and I mean that in a good way.  Still, the only way to take it in is to glance at everything and select only the pieces to catch your eye for further appreciation.  One could go insane trying to read and study everything.  It is truly an amazing collection of the world’s art.

My favorites today were the Italian sculptures,  large French paintings and Egyptian funeral portraits.

I saw the Mona Lisa today and was not terribly impressed.  Don’t get me wrong, I know it’s DaVinci, I know it’s incredibly famous, especially now with the DaVinci Code hype, but still.  It’s nice but I was more impressed by other works in the same section.  What seriously bothered me though was that you’d think the Mona Lisa has a strobe light focused on her face.  At this point I’m going to get on my high horse for a moment.  There are signs EVERYWHERE that photographs are not to be taken of the paintings because the flashes are damaging.  And yet, that’s exactly what most people are doing.  I don’t even think they are looking at the paintings.  They just take the flash pictures.  Surprisingly, the Louvre docents don’t say anything.  They all look like they want to shoot themselves, so perhaps they’ve just given up.  Anyway, I think it’s irresponsible and selfish for people to snap photographs they’ll probably hardly look at and won’t even turn out worth a damn, meanwhile irreparably damaging the paintings for future generations.  Okay, rant finished.  The Louvre is really fantastic and I’m looking forward to my other two visits, although I haven’t decided yet which days I’ll go back.

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August 1, 2007 by Tiffany.

Today I visited the Musee Rodin, which was the home of Auguste Rodin and now houses many of his most famous sculptures and other works.  The sculptures are gorgeous.  He really understood the human body and how it moves.  The mansion and the gardens are beautiful and peaceful.

Some of the most notable works displayed are The Thinker, The Kiss and The Gates of Hell, although most of the others are fantastic as well.

Tonight we’ll be having our favorite meal again.  No, not last night’s andouillette, but frenchiladas!!  To close today, I thought I’d post a picture of what is arguably the stupidest looking car I’ve ever seen.  This one takes the cake.

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