PARIS TRIP: DAY 5: Paris, Tours
Paris and Tours, Sunday, 18 June 06
(written on 21 June)
Guillaume got up the same time I did, at 9 am. I went to the Louvre and did my visit in three parts.
Napoleon III’s apartments were quite gorgeous. I also saw the throne of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Then I realized that I had missed the archaeological exhibits of the ancient civilizations of the “Near East”—Babylon, Mesopotamia and around; particularly the Hammurabi Code. I had lunch at a Moroccan restaurant in the Louvre shopping complex—the main course was good, but the dessert was too sweet, and I couldn’t finish it. 
Next I tackled the most famous part of the Louvre, it’s paintings. French, Dutch/Flemish (Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Flanders, Rubens et al.; I realize that I am not particularly fond of Rubens) and some very interesting Scandinavian ones. The paintings of course cannot be photographed.
Finally I went to the Italian Renaissance ones. The da Vincis. There are I think six of them in there, including one of the versions of The Virgin of the Rocks and of course the Mona Lisa. The former is a large gallery along with other da Vincis, Raphaels and others while the latter is in a hall of its own along with some other paintings (including a few Titians and Veronese’s huge Wedding at Cana).
A lot of people had told me that the Mona Lisa is small and would be disappointing. It is small, but not really. And it certainly wasn’t disappointing. The crowds before the Mona Lisa were of course as I had expected (interestingly, the French pronounce “Vinci” as “Vinsi”).
I like Raphael. Arcimboldo’s Seasons with their fruit-and-leaves faces were also interesting. In the Spanish section there was one artist whose work I really liked, but unfortunately I have forgotten his name—one of his paintings, called Beggar Boy, was particularly impressive. The paintings in the French gallery parallel to the Italian one were interesting with huge canvases of Delacroix, Gericault and others, with many of them about Napoleon including the enormous Sacre de Napoleon, a version of which I had seen in the Versailles.
I returned to Boulevard Saint Louis and checked my email and then returned to Guillaume’s place. I packed, said goodbye to him and took the Metro to the Austerlitz station. There I got my ticket from an automat with my bankcard—I had been told that only French ones work in these, but that is not true. My train left at around 5:30 pm and reached Tours around 7:30 pm. I got a map and, as I realized later, took a rather long route to my hosts’ place.
All the five of them were there: Helene, Fanny, Annika, Sylvia and Guillaume (this seems to be a very popular name, and, I was told, is the French version of William). Sylvia doesn’t speak much English and was terribly busy too and I didn’t see much of her or get to talk much with her. The others were all very nice, helpful and friendly. Annika is German, from near Köln. She and Guillaume were leaving right then to watch the football match between France and S.Korea. The others were not so keen about football and would join them later. I had a shower, chatted with the gang, and Helene, Fanny and I went to join the football enthusiasts. Fanny and I had a Turkish Kebab on our way. They were watching football in a square in front of a bar, and the TV was on a window above. There were two other German girls, Annegret and Nicole. Helene left soon after the match (it was a 1-1 draw), and the rest of us chatted until we realized that it was 12:30 am, so we walked back.I browsed the internet before I went to sleep.
(written on 21 June)
Guillaume got up the same time I did, at 9 am. I went to the Louvre and did my visit in three parts.
Napoleon III’s apartments were quite gorgeous. I also saw the throne of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Then I realized that I had missed the archaeological exhibits of the ancient civilizations of the “Near East”—Babylon, Mesopotamia and around; particularly the Hammurabi Code. I had lunch at a Moroccan restaurant in the Louvre shopping complex—the main course was good, but the dessert was too sweet, and I couldn’t finish it. 
Next I tackled the most famous part of the Louvre, it’s paintings. French, Dutch/Flemish (Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Flanders, Rubens et al.; I realize that I am not particularly fond of Rubens) and some very interesting Scandinavian ones. The paintings of course cannot be photographed.
Finally I went to the Italian Renaissance ones. The da Vincis. There are I think six of them in there, including one of the versions of The Virgin of the Rocks and of course the Mona Lisa. The former is a large gallery along with other da Vincis, Raphaels and others while the latter is in a hall of its own along with some other paintings (including a few Titians and Veronese’s huge Wedding at Cana).
A lot of people had told me that the Mona Lisa is small and would be disappointing. It is small, but not really. And it certainly wasn’t disappointing. The crowds before the Mona Lisa were of course as I had expected (interestingly, the French pronounce “Vinci” as “Vinsi”).
I like Raphael. Arcimboldo’s Seasons with their fruit-and-leaves faces were also interesting. In the Spanish section there was one artist whose work I really liked, but unfortunately I have forgotten his name—one of his paintings, called Beggar Boy, was particularly impressive. The paintings in the French gallery parallel to the Italian one were interesting with huge canvases of Delacroix, Gericault and others, with many of them about Napoleon including the enormous Sacre de Napoleon, a version of which I had seen in the Versailles.
I returned to Boulevard Saint Louis and checked my email and then returned to Guillaume’s place. I packed, said goodbye to him and took the Metro to the Austerlitz station. There I got my ticket from an automat with my bankcard—I had been told that only French ones work in these, but that is not true. My train left at around 5:30 pm and reached Tours around 7:30 pm. I got a map and, as I realized later, took a rather long route to my hosts’ place.
All the five of them were there: Helene, Fanny, Annika, Sylvia and Guillaume (this seems to be a very popular name, and, I was told, is the French version of William). Sylvia doesn’t speak much English and was terribly busy too and I didn’t see much of her or get to talk much with her. The others were all very nice, helpful and friendly. Annika is German, from near Köln. She and Guillaume were leaving right then to watch the football match between France and S.Korea. The others were not so keen about football and would join them later. I had a shower, chatted with the gang, and Helene, Fanny and I went to join the football enthusiasts. Fanny and I had a Turkish Kebab on our way. They were watching football in a square in front of a bar, and the TV was on a window above. There were two other German girls, Annegret and Nicole. Helene left soon after the match (it was a 1-1 draw), and the rest of us chatted until we realized that it was 12:30 am, so we walked back.I browsed the internet before I went to sleep.
posted by A.S. at 3:45 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home