Today we were going to do a self planned walking tour of Montmarte & Pigalle, but the weather just wasn't cooperating. So after a breakfast of yummy pastries we decided that a museum day might be a good idea. Since D'Orsay was closed on Mondays we decided to move our Louvre plans from a Wed. nt. to today.
While we were waiting for the bus the heavens let loose and we quickly decided that a cab may get us there warmer & drier then the bus, so we were off wizzing to the Louvre in a cab. We were fortunate that he understood what I meant when I kept saying the Carrousell entrance as he dropped us at the Porte Des Lions entrance which was very close. It was little before 11am.
While at this entrance an elderly lady slipped on the unlevel brick and went face first into them. At first she wasn't moving at all and her friend was trying to pull her up. Being a medical person my first response was to help. As I shoved my purse at Mark to hold my first thought was this could be a ploy to be pickpocketed. Sad that after reading so many negatives about pick pockets that, that was my first thought. Finally her husband got her rolled over and she was bleeding profusely from the mouth. She was talking and appeared to have broken a tooth or two. I handed them my packet of tissues (don't go to foreign public restrooms with out them). There had been several Louvre personnel inside and one person came out and was just watching the whole thing not offering to call for medical help or anything...this just befuddled me in America there would have been of ton of people there to help her. Finally someone that spoke French got a Louvre employee involved and she started to radio for help. At this point we made our departure as she didn't need an audience. We said a quick prayer for the poor dear and her travel mates and hope their whole trip wasn't ruined.
Dashing between the rain drops we made our way down the steps of the Carousel entrance cautiously. We walked in to discover a line that made our mouths drop. It was then that I realized we had not stopped at the post office near our apartment to prepurchase our museum passes, oops guess that's what happens when you change up the plans. After following the line to the back which seemed to take 5 minutes we finally reached the end of the line to discover that it was over an hour wait at that point to get in. So we went and waited 35 minutes at the tabac store in the mall to purchase the pass. When we were only about 20 people back a women comes and cuts in line while the guy she cut in front of was looking at something on the wall. I thought Mark was going to go pull her out of line he was so mad at her. I saw the cutest little umbrella with Paris logo's on it so had to purchase that with the pass. We were told by a Louvre employee that museum pass holders had to go back out to the Pyramid entrance to clear security. This was a change from my research on Tripadvisor that said that Carousel entrance was usually the shortest line for security for Museum Pass holders.
So back out into the rain we went and as soon as we hit the side walk we were practically accosted by guys trying to sell us umbrella's. As one of them shoved one in my face close enough that I had to rear my head back to keep from getting hit in the face I pushed it away and made a grimace one of his buddies saw this and proceeded to yell what I am assuming was foreign obscenities until we were past. We had to walk through these guys for awhile before we got back on Louvre property and they couldn't enter. At one point Mark yelled at one of them and said don't you see my f-ing umbrella. It was ridiculous, I don't mind you trying to make a buck by selling but there was no need to push them in our faces.
Once outside of the Pyramid we see the huge line up of more people standing in the rain and I started looking for the Museum Pass line. There were no people in the Museum Pass line and we walked right in, thinking the whole time about all these other people willing to wait in the rain that long to enter. We cleared security without a wait and headed down stairs to find the mass of humanity that I call the Louvre. Our first stop was a restroom and then the Denon wing I think it was called. We enjoyed many of the marble sculptures in this area immensely. Some of the works really can bring out some emotions it's amazing. Our stomachs were soon telling us it was time for lunch so we were off to find a restaurant. We ended up at Cafe Grand Louvre (inside the Louvre). It was very busy and we had about a 15 minute wait to get in and about 30 minute wait just to get service. But the beer was cold and the food was delicious and hey well we were off our feet.
Once done with lunch we went to the medieval portion of the old castle and the Egyptian wing. It was interesting but so crowded and hot, hardly enjoyable. It had only been 2-3 weeks prior to this that the Louvre employees had their walk out in protest to all of the pickpocketing. There were several folks walking around in full length coats not even looking at the art but at other people. Humm makes me wonder would a pick pocket be that obvious. Maybe it was undercover security. As Mark and I tried to make our way through the museum it was very easy to get lost but we had no agenda until we were ready to leave. I swear it took us 20 minutes just to find the way out even asking personnel for directions. Mark thinks everyone should be notified going in that there is only one way in and one way out. It did start to get annoying especially when you need to go to the restroom.
Carousel entrance
The sun was shining when we left and we enjoyed it with some wine on our baloney for the afternoon.
For dinner we hopped into a taxi and took it to Cafe Constant and had a wonderful meal at reasonable prices. Cafe Constant is the most economical restaurant of famed chef Christian Constant. Fortunately we arrived early at about 7:30pm as we walked into the bar on the lower level we were directed upstairs to the dining room. Once up stairs we got the second to the last table and felt fortunate. The tables here are so close that it doesn't matter even the skinny little Parisian next to us had to pull the table all the way out to get out for the restroom. I am not exaggerating when I say there is only 3 inches between the tables. A true Parisian experience. Shortly after we ordered our food the Americans next to us struck up a conversation and after just a few hours we feel we made some new friends, David & Sandy it was nice to meet you. I will write up a full review on 2 fat foodies later I have several good pictures to share especially the frog legs. When finished we paid down stairs and had to push through a crowd of folks waiting to dine. Again sure glad we showed up early since they don't except reservations.
It was romantic as we walked down the sidewalk tholding hands to get to the cab stand we could see the twinkling of E.T. reflecting off the apartment windows. Back to the apartment to again fall asleep with the dream view.
No comments:
Post a Comment