Although Bordeaux was great, and Andorra was a waste of time, and Barcelona was awesome fun, i had been looking forward to going to Paris?? since the beginning of the trip. Paris is simply an amazing place. It is so over the top. It has been and still is the centre of fashion, culture, and high living. And i love it!
We were staying a little out of the centre, but it only meant a tube ride into the centre. I put down a list of the things that i wanted to do in Paris. Along the list were things like walking through the Tuilleries, having a laugh in Pigalle, and definately walking up Montmarte and going into Sacr?e Coeur, but at the very top was the on thing that i had always wanted to do in Paris and always put off. Every time you go there seems to be a thousand and one people and everyone says to leave about 4 hours at least to do it. I mean there cant be that much to see! The thing i had never done was go to the Lourve. The Lourve is an amazingly impressive building by itself, it is said the Louis the 14th would fill the Lourve with trees, bushes and dirt and foxes and hold hunts on horses within the building, such is the size, but it is the amazing array of priceless and breathtaking artwork that defines its existance.
For once, we managed to walk straight into the Lourve, not even one person there. We waited until after 4 when it would cost us 6 euros less (the ever tight exchange students), but we still had a few hours to poke around. We went in and i went through the Egyptian section with the countless mummies, sarcophoguses (i think that was right) and artefects (i know i spelt that one right - all credit to dad!), it was awesome, it startling to think these things have survived so well for thousands of years. It staggering to think of the stories that these sort of things hold. Imagine the list of people they have met, the things they have seen, it makes you wonder, if only the walls (or in this case, statues of cats!) talk. But like all the tourists, i was en route for one thing - Leonardo da Vinci's masterwork, the self-proclaimed epitome of perfection, La Jaconde, or as we better know it, The Mona Lisa.
Seeing it was somewhat a bit of a let down. I mean, its really only just as great as you see in the books. Its great to have a picture next to it, to try and get the right angle, so the plexi-glass lets you get a shot of it, and to enjoy it in real life. But this is a piece of glorius art, and it is supposed to be enjoyed. The throng of a thousand surrounding her sort of ruins the atmosphere. You have to struggle to get a view, and when you do, people complain you've been there too long. So i took some photos and had a quick look (for thats all the Italian tourist behind me allowed!), and turned to the thousand other brilliant pieces kept there. Its funny though, i mean, to just throw out hundreds of years of fine art appreciation and go straight against the experts who have so much more experience than me, its really not that good. I mean, the only reason it is so revered is because Leonardo himself said it was his finest work. Funny the way people take words to heart so quickly. But the rest of the Lourve was awesome, saw everything else (really too much to mention), went up the Montmarte for sunset, and looked through the arthouses and tiny streets on the way home, i very culture-filled day!
Paz