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Day one of being a tourist! The Louvre is about 15 minutes walk away from Hotel Ascot Opera, where I’m staying. From there, it’s another 20 minute light walk down the river down towards Notre Dame, Saint Chapelle and Conciergerie. Started the day late today, had some trouble sleeping due to a little jet lag.

The Louvre is huge! Looking on it from the outside, I’m not sure how I’m going to finish that in one day. Will most likely go back for another half day to finish up the exhibits. Notre Dame was very crowded. Besides the usual tourists, we hit it right up in the middle of morning mass. Even with mass, they still let tourists go around the cathedral along the outer corridors so as not to disturb the worshippers. The priest(?) was speaking in French, and the cathedral was completely full. It’s hard to believe that such a large, grand building was first constructed in the 12th century!   

After walking around the beautiful garden surrounding Notre Dame, it was time for both Saint Chapelle and the Conciergerie. Saint Chapelle is a small chapel famous for the stained glass windows all around the walls, depicting things from genesis to Judith and Job and others. While small, it was definitely worth the look, though only if the sun was out. Luckily, today was about the only sunny day for the next week. Unfortunately, Saint Chapelle was undergoing partial renovations, so parts of the windows were covered, and other parts were very dirty and barely visible. 

Conciergerie used to part of the royal palace where huge dinners were hosted (with 2000+ people) in the large hall on the lower-ground floor until it was later converted to a prison. The hall almost had a LOTR feel to it, large pillars holding up the roof, completely empty of furniture, just like any RPG game. The prisoner section was interesting, with mockups of what conditions the prisoners would have been placed under, including special ‘upgrade’ cells where prisoners could get some privacy and a bed, to ‘private’ cells if the prisoner paid enough to get upgraded to a private room (sound similar to LA?).  

One thing the guide book warned was that the Crypt of Notre Dame was hard to find.. and boy was it! Walked plain around it twice while searching for it, missing it completely thinking that it was the entrance for the Metro. Finally found it and went in to see what the original buildings and foundations were for the Notre Dame area back in the day. Probably not worth visiting alone, but with the museum pass making it free, why not!

It started to look like it was going to rain, but there was a half-hour long organ recital that came only on Sundays at 4:30pm at Notre Dame. Stayed for that, a selection of music by Le labyrinthe du monde et le paradis du coeur by Petr Eben back in 1929. I don’t think I’ve actually heard organ music like this before, quite hectic at times and very dramatic.

And rain came… It was a 45 minute walk back to the hotel in the rain, so I decided to try out the Metro system. After spending almost 10 minutes puzzling over the maps and routes, I finally figured the two train systems out enough to get home. Took three changes, but at least it was out of the rain!

Culture wise… well, a few initial misconceptions about Paris were quickly destroyed. This place is as diverse as, if not more so, compared to the Bay Area. Lots of Chinese, Indians, Africans(I guess they wouldn’t be African-Americans) running around speaking perfect French, with their own little stores and making a living here. Strangely, the Opera district, where I’m currently staying, seems to be a mini-Japantown, with lots of Japanese restaurants, shops, even a library. It’s hard to get non-Japanese food around here without walking a distance away.

The tourists are about… I’d say almost 50% English speakers, with a few scattered other languages (saw a big Chinese tour group), with the remaining French. Everyone I encountered spoke English, though it is true about the French. If you speak to them first in English, they come across as rude and unresponsive, but if you start off with a bit of French, even as simple as excusez-moi, they’ll become a lot friendlier and try to help you. Even the non-ethnic French behave that way!

Tomorrow: Louvre! Showers all day, so it’ll be good to get indoors 🙂

Another rainy day in Paris… The rain comes in intervals of about 15-20 minutes, making it hard to get around. Coming out from the Metro station, I barely made it two steps when it started to pour. A quick turn around into the station, then after waiting for about 10 minutes, I braved the rain with my umbrella to get to Hotel les Invalides. This used to be a hospital for injured soldiers, but now is the tomb for Napoleon Bonaparte, a museum for World War I & II, and a place where they store relic weapons, including armors from the 14th – 17th centuries, and weapons from ancient Asia (Japanese & Chinese armors)

Turns out, I shouldn’t have bothered. About 5 minutes after I arrived, the rain stopped, hence explaining why Parisians almost always just step indoors and wait the rain out. This building is where Napoleon is entombed, inside a 5-layer coffin. The dome on top us made out of 14 kg of gold, and the inside has lots of art painted on the dome, and around it. Napoleon’s coffin is huge, 4m x 2m, and is recessed in a pit. Around it are various sculpted walls depicting him as an idealized roman emperor with his various actions. Around him, other people are buried, his favored generals and more. Just behind the tomb is a large, nice chapel, but it was closed to the public. There seems to be some sort of government building next to the tomb that had clear signs that said "no tourists".

Lining the corridors of this huge building were lots and lots of ancient canons, made out of various materials. There were so many that nobody really paid much attention to them, but each one was unique and had a small sign in French. Unfortunately, the English description varied between "Canon" to "Canon – Bronze".

The overall theme of this site seemed to be war. The World War I & II exhibits were pretty interesting to walk through, giving a good review of how the wars progressed over the years. They also had many exhibits with old uniforms and weapons. I found it interesting to read about the French resistance and how the allies sent multi-nation teams to link up with the local resistance to prepare for the counterattack against Germany.

I cut the day short since the weather was bad. It just isn’t worth going from place to place all sticky and carrying a wet umbrella. Hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow.

After sleeping in this morning, it was out for a long day exploring the royal palace in Versailles, then back to Paris!

Versailles… another huge palace, this one surrounded by a huge garden, private canal, lots of trees, sculptures, and more! After a long line to get tickets, it was straight into the palace to see the royal chambers, with a brief look around the art gallery with a few indoor sculptures. 

Every room, from the formal entertainment rooms, to the bedrooms and even the bodyguard rooms were incredibly decorated, with lots of paintings, statues, and many ceiling paintings that must have taken months, if not years to complete. Gold, marble used everywhere. The royal palace takes about an hour to finish walking through, especially with lots of school children out on a tour. Interestingly, this is where the Queen Marie Antionette was chased out by rebels during the French revolution. Though they failed to capture her here, they eventually got her and imprisoned her in the  Concierge.

The gardens are just an exercise in extravagance. Perfectly trimmed bushes, lots of statues and art… I wonder how much the royals spent on hiring artists and commissioning paintings and statues. The pre-19th centuries must have been grand. One thing amuses me though… I wonder what the kings and queens would have thought if they knew that these days, their private bedchambers were being shown off to thousands of tourists who take photos of their artwork, and their beds and private belongings every day! 

Back to Paris in another train ride, though hitting Paris at what I think was rush hour is a pain when you have luggage. Since the sun only sets at 10pm, I figured that after dinner, hitting up the Eiffel tower and trying to get sunset photos would be a good idea! The tower is about 15 minutes from the new hotel. Managed to get some great photos of the tower while the sun was out. Keep in mind this is about 7:30pm. Dinner was escargot at one of many restaurants around the tower. It was still light out at 9:00pm, and there was a long line to go up to the tower. My plan for catching the sunset seemed to be working.

Of course, this is the day that the clouds decide to come in at the last minute, blocking out the sun and making everywhere look overcast… Still, managed to get a few good night shots of the surrounding area, and of the tower itself. The tower lights up for 10 minutes every hour, flashing brightly in what looks… almost gaudy. 

Strangely, I seem to be hitting major events all over Paris. Just opposite the Eiffel tower, there was a large concert going on. It was definitely a major event, with lots of Parisians dressed up, mostly a younger crowd. Later, after returning to the hotel, I found it on one of the channels, some sort of music festival, with people going wild. I don’t think the concert started until around 9pm, and it was still going on at midnight! I guess the French do stay up late, unlike the U.S. when everything shuts down at around 6-7pm, latest 9pm.

Been out and about for the last couple of days… here’s a brief summary

Louvre: Incredibly big museum, much too much to see. It’s incredible how they managed to get so many precious pieces of art together in one location. It’s almost criminal! I’ve never seen so many statues, paintings, etc. at once. The Mona Lisa is the most crowded exhibit, of course, with you needing to squeeze through large crowds to get to even see it. The Wedding Feast is directly opposite it, a huge painting about 30 ft across. When visiting the Louvre, an audioguide is necessary as none of the descriptions of the arts are in English. 🙁 They also has a "Da Vinci Code" guided tour that is half entertainment, half guide through the Louvre

Pantheon: A replica of those created in Rome, this was constructed to pay respect to the patron Saint of Paris. It is also a tomb for notable Parisians, where famous people like Victor Hugo are buried in the crypt underground. Interestingly, this is still an active crypt as there are many spots still available for people to be buried here in the future. 

Musee d’Orsay: Next to the Louvre, this museum used to be a train station, but is now converted into a museum that has more recent art, including statues, paintings and others. It isn’t anywhere near as large as the Louvre, but the inside of the station is quite impressive, with large clocks on the inside, and a large atrium where most of the statue works are kept. Works from Monet, Pissaro are on display here. 

Arc de Triomphe: The famous grand arch that celebrates French triumph. Many dignitaries visit or are honored here. There was some ceremony going on when I arrived, and access was limited as they had a marching band, what looked like military personal, and some important person visiting under escort. Managed to get to the top, where you get an awesome view of Paris. This is also known as a "etoile" or star since it has 12 roads leading to a giant roundabout. You can see the Louvre, Eiffel tower and other places from the top of the building.

Versailles: Royal palace about 30 minutes out from Central Paris… the outside looks pretty nice, though French architecture is starting to get boring on me after seeing so much of it. It is partly under construction… will visit the inside today and see what it is about. The grounds are huge, and I’ve only see maybe 10% so far. No time to visit the canal, or see the rest yet.