Sadly, our 5-day break had to end sometime.  Most of the students left Paris to travel throughout Europe, but I decided to stay here and relax.  I walked from one end of Paris to the other and just about every place in between.  Yesterday was Armistice Day and there was a big parade down the Champs Elysees, thousands of people, hundreds of police and riot control officers everywhere.  Fortunately, everyone was just enjoying the day and behaving, but the police are always ready for anything here in Paris. 

 

So, what does a veteran have for dinner on Veteran’s Day in France?  You guessed it, good old American steak and fries, accompanied by a lovely wine.  There is an awesome, not expensive restaurant close to the Arc de Triomphe that serves great food, and the steak was done to perfection. 

 

The Arc de Triomphe was looking good yesterday with the flag of France waving in the arch.  They had just reopened the road to traffic, so there’s not that much going around it yet.  Usually, it is 8 undivided lanes of crazy!  Luckily, there is an underground walkway that leads to the entrance so you don’t have go risk life and limb crossing the traffic circle.

 

Friday, I visited the Louvre.  If you think you’re going to get all the way through that museum in one day, you are nuts.  I only visited specific paintings and artifacts and it took me 6 hours.  I think if I go back for 3 more visits of around 5-6 hours each, I might see all of the rooms and exhibitions…maybe.

Here’s our girl, Mona Lisa.  She is much smaller than most people think and you cannot get within 15 feet of her.  She’s in a glass case with a wooden arc about 5-7 feet in front of her to keep folks away and there is a second roped-off perimeter another 5-10 beyond that with several guards standing about 3-5 feet from her. 

 

When you’re done gazing at Mona, just turn around and voila!  This is the Wedding at Cana and it is huge!  It literally makes you stop and think, whoa!  It is one of my favorite pieces of art and it is gorgeous.  There is so much detail and so many little stories within this one painting, it’s incredible.

I love this guy!  This is the seated scribe and he’s about 3000-4000 years old.  He’s made of painted limestone and the detail of his face and hands is just amazing.  I spent a lot of time in this section of the Louvre because it has the oldest artifacts.  It’s very surreal to be standing in front of something that was made several millennia ago and still looks like this today. 

 

Saturday it rained all day, but that did not deter me from visiting the Pere Lachaise cemetery.  There are so many famous people interred there and you have to really look to find them sometimes because there are graves/tombs in the middle of a section with no footpath to get to them.  You literally have to tiptoe between huge slabs of stone or walk on the edges of the tombs.  A little creepy, but hey, ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

I thought everyone would enjoy this and I’d be remiss if I left out Jim Morrison.  I found him quite easily this time, only because it took my sister and I 45 minutes to find his grave 5 years ago when we visited.  There are always flowers and trinkets on his grave, no matter what time of year it is.

 

This one makes me giggle every time.  Frederic Chopin, a composer whose name everyone recognizes, but does he get any respect?  Nope.  It’s Fred Chopin!  Fred!  Are you kidding me?  Thankfully, his full name is in the middle, but really, Paris?

The rest of the weekend, I did some shopping for family and friends and just walked around taking in the sights.  The Seine was also overflowing it’s banks on Saturday, but by then my camera battery was almost dead and I only got one picture.  Anyway, you can normally walk on the sidewalk which runs right along the Seine, but not this past weekend.  We’ve gotten so much rain lately, that the sidewalks were completely submerged by several feet.  Usually the water level is about 10-15 feet below the quais and sidewalks.  On any other day, these steps would lead you to the sidewalk, but not that day.  It was quite impressive.

 

Well, back to school and homework.  It’s hard to believe there’s only 5 weeks left and then it’s time to go home.  Time is flying by.  Until this weekend….

Mary

Location: Paris, France