"Joyeux 13ème Anniversaire, Anna"- Paris, Wednesday, July 17, 2013
It's hard to believe that we've got a teenager in the house. Anna turned 13 today. (Actually, maybe it's not that hard to believe. She's been seeming more and more like a teenager and less and less like a little girl for some time now. We just don't want to admit that we're old enough to be her parents.)
We asked Anna to plan her day today, and she wanted to go to the Louvre again, like we did back in 2009. We started from the hotel and had to have help to find the Metro station, but we were soon put on the right track-- literally. We circled some of the blocks near the Louvre, looking for a McDonald's for breakfast, again needing the help of strangers to steer us to it. We learned that McDonald's in France are called "McDo", We did find it, and then went to the lines for entering the Louvre.
We had hoped to get to the Louvre when it opened at 9:00. We were a little late and the line was already wrapped around the courtyard quite a ways. We entered, finally, through the famous big glass pyramid. We eventually got to where we could by a 2-Day Paris Museum Pass, which should help us get us to several places today and tomorrow.
The Louvre is always a mass of people. We used iPads and iPods to follow Rick Steves' tour to the highlights, but unfortunately, they are the same things that everyone else wants to see and mobs of people and cameras surround each one. (Emma was sharing earphones with Julie to begin with, but gave up on it. She said she just wanted to walk around like a normal person.) We saw the Louvre's three most famous ladies- the Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, and the Mona Lisa, along with many, many other pieces that we passed in the sea of people. It was hot, and something of an ordeal, but when we were finishing, Anna said thanks to us for taking her, so we think she liked it. She was certainly taking a lot of pictures with her iPod as we went through.
There's a mall connected to the Louvre, where we ate at the food court. We had French food at the McDo. (A Royal cheese, avec pomme frites, for example). We then started to walk up Tuileries Garden, which extends out from the Louvre towards the Champs-Élysées, like the National Mall in Washington. The original plan was to walk all the way to the Arc de Triumph. However, it was quite hot, and we tried to walk under the shaded trees. We got as far as the Plaza de Concorde, where the Egyptian obelisk called Cleopatra's Needle is and where many people were beheaded during the French Revolution. We decided not to go the entire distance to the Arc. Like Washington DC, distances are very difficult to judge because of the large scale of the buildings involved. When standing at the small arch near the Louvre (which was also built in Napoleonic times), it's easy to see the Arc de Triumph, and even though you KNOW it's bigger, you're mind is telling you it's not that far away. When we were at the Arc de Triumph looking back at the Louvre, we couldn't even SEE the smaller arch. (It's a curious effect, which we're certain is repeated in the same way with the large square arch-like building that is WAY out on the same line of site, in the area called La Défense, but no one was willing to trek all the way out to test the hypothesis.) So, we ditched the idea of walking to the arch and made use of the day passes that we had bought for the metro. It turns out the Arc was still four subway stops away.
The Arc de Triomphe was another pick of Anastasia's for today and none of us had ever been there before. We found the tunnel to cross underneath the crazy traffic that circles continuously around it. Then, after a quick break, we climbed 284 steps to the top, most of them in a dizzying spiral staircase. The view was quite nice, and worth the effort. That view and the allegorical statues on the arch itself gave us a moment to reflect on much of France's history- including Napoleon's era and the French involvement in the two world wars.
After the arc, we walked some of the length of the Champs-Élysées, where Anna wanted to see some of the famed shopping. We didn't really buy anything except drinks at McDo's. We browsed in H&M as well as the Disney Store. Anna also got to use some luxurious but "creepy" bathrooms. Then we were all drained from the walking and heat. We took the metro back to the hotel. We are starting to feel pretty confident about how to read its maps and head the right direction.
Julie brought Subway for us to eat in our hotel's air conditioning. Some of us napped. Then we were refreshed and ready for the climax of the day- the Eiffel Tower. We walked over to it at about 8:00 and sat in the park by it, eating ice cream and laughing. Our tickets to go up were for 9:30. We did see a few sketchy people trying to "give" Julie a flower or sell the girls Eiffel Tower models. One smart aleck street performer pretended to push Scott around. When Scott realized the crowd was watching him, the man announced, "Ladies and gentleman: Mr. Orson Welles!" Scott really wished the guy had been a mime instead. We got up into the tower just as the sun was going down. We waited to go further up to the highest observation deck. As we were up there, the lights of Paris were starting to come on. We picked out quite a few of the buildings we have come to recognize from our experiences here, including the hotel we're staying in now. We watched the way the lights make the tower sparkle, the way we were able to see from our hotel windows last night. We didn't leave the tower until shortly before 11:00 PM. It was a great way to end Anna's birthday.
We asked Anna to plan her day today, and she wanted to go to the Louvre again, like we did back in 2009. We started from the hotel and had to have help to find the Metro station, but we were soon put on the right track-- literally. We circled some of the blocks near the Louvre, looking for a McDonald's for breakfast, again needing the help of strangers to steer us to it. We learned that McDonald's in France are called "McDo", We did find it, and then went to the lines for entering the Louvre.
We had hoped to get to the Louvre when it opened at 9:00. We were a little late and the line was already wrapped around the courtyard quite a ways. We entered, finally, through the famous big glass pyramid. We eventually got to where we could by a 2-Day Paris Museum Pass, which should help us get us to several places today and tomorrow.
The Louvre is always a mass of people. We used iPads and iPods to follow Rick Steves' tour to the highlights, but unfortunately, they are the same things that everyone else wants to see and mobs of people and cameras surround each one. (Emma was sharing earphones with Julie to begin with, but gave up on it. She said she just wanted to walk around like a normal person.) We saw the Louvre's three most famous ladies- the Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, and the Mona Lisa, along with many, many other pieces that we passed in the sea of people. It was hot, and something of an ordeal, but when we were finishing, Anna said thanks to us for taking her, so we think she liked it. She was certainly taking a lot of pictures with her iPod as we went through.
There's a mall connected to the Louvre, where we ate at the food court. We had French food at the McDo. (A Royal cheese, avec pomme frites, for example). We then started to walk up Tuileries Garden, which extends out from the Louvre towards the Champs-Élysées, like the National Mall in Washington. The original plan was to walk all the way to the Arc de Triumph. However, it was quite hot, and we tried to walk under the shaded trees. We got as far as the Plaza de Concorde, where the Egyptian obelisk called Cleopatra's Needle is and where many people were beheaded during the French Revolution. We decided not to go the entire distance to the Arc. Like Washington DC, distances are very difficult to judge because of the large scale of the buildings involved. When standing at the small arch near the Louvre (which was also built in Napoleonic times), it's easy to see the Arc de Triumph, and even though you KNOW it's bigger, you're mind is telling you it's not that far away. When we were at the Arc de Triumph looking back at the Louvre, we couldn't even SEE the smaller arch. (It's a curious effect, which we're certain is repeated in the same way with the large square arch-like building that is WAY out on the same line of site, in the area called La Défense, but no one was willing to trek all the way out to test the hypothesis.) So, we ditched the idea of walking to the arch and made use of the day passes that we had bought for the metro. It turns out the Arc was still four subway stops away.
The Arc de Triomphe was another pick of Anastasia's for today and none of us had ever been there before. We found the tunnel to cross underneath the crazy traffic that circles continuously around it. Then, after a quick break, we climbed 284 steps to the top, most of them in a dizzying spiral staircase. The view was quite nice, and worth the effort. That view and the allegorical statues on the arch itself gave us a moment to reflect on much of France's history- including Napoleon's era and the French involvement in the two world wars.
After the arc, we walked some of the length of the Champs-Élysées, where Anna wanted to see some of the famed shopping. We didn't really buy anything except drinks at McDo's. We browsed in H&M as well as the Disney Store. Anna also got to use some luxurious but "creepy" bathrooms. Then we were all drained from the walking and heat. We took the metro back to the hotel. We are starting to feel pretty confident about how to read its maps and head the right direction.
Julie brought Subway for us to eat in our hotel's air conditioning. Some of us napped. Then we were refreshed and ready for the climax of the day- the Eiffel Tower. We walked over to it at about 8:00 and sat in the park by it, eating ice cream and laughing. Our tickets to go up were for 9:30. We did see a few sketchy people trying to "give" Julie a flower or sell the girls Eiffel Tower models. One smart aleck street performer pretended to push Scott around. When Scott realized the crowd was watching him, the man announced, "Ladies and gentleman: Mr. Orson Welles!" Scott really wished the guy had been a mime instead. We got up into the tower just as the sun was going down. We waited to go further up to the highest observation deck. As we were up there, the lights of Paris were starting to come on. We picked out quite a few of the buildings we have come to recognize from our experiences here, including the hotel we're staying in now. We watched the way the lights make the tower sparkle, the way we were able to see from our hotel windows last night. We didn't leave the tower until shortly before 11:00 PM. It was a great way to end Anna's birthday.
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6:53 PM
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