Paris, Je T'aime. {Day Five}
“Admirable, however, as the Paris of the present day appears to you, build up and put together again in imagination the Paris of the fifteenth century; look at the light through that surprising host of steeples, towers, and belfries; pour forth amid the immense city, break against the points of its islands, compress within the arches of the bridges, the current of the Seine, with its large patches of green and yellow, more changeable than a serpent's skin; define clearly the Gothic profile of this old Paris upon an horizon of azure, make its contour float in a wintry fog which clings to its innumerable chimneys; drown it in deep night, and observe the extraordinary play of darkness and light in this sombre labyrinth of buildings; throw into it a ray of moonlight, which shall show its faint outline and cause the huge heads of the towers to stand forth from amid the mist; or revert to that dark picture, touch up with shade the thousand acute angles of the spires and gables, and make them stand out, more jagged than a shark's jaw, upon the copper-coloured sky of evening. Now compare the two.”
― Victor Hugo, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
Today was a day where all of creation was so beautiful it almost hurt. The sky...ah, the sky looked like G-d painted the clouds with His fingers.
We took the metro to the Louvre, stopping off at Tulierie to walk through the Luxembourg Garden. The Louvre was all that I ever dreamt it would be...more, of course. We heard from our tour guide (which I would highly, absolutely recommend) that the entire museum would take three months to view, spending three seconds in front of every exhibit.
That being said, we picked what we especially wanted to see and went for it. The tour guide, without whom I'm quite sure we would have been lost in a manner of minutes, was hilarious and engaging. She made sure to remind us just how much history and the Bible ties in with the art; she showed us Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa, and reminded us why they were so important. Actually, her passion for the art and history were contagious, and made my day.
"I remember this! I know this!" My Mama taught me loads of tricks to remember these when I was younger, and we spent months studying only art and Greek and Roman history. Alexandrea was desperate to find the Cupid and Psyche statue; we found it a little risqué, but the workmanship made me want to cry- that's how alive that marble was.
We packed some tabouli and leftover pasta for a light lunch at the Luxembourg Park; we sat and relaxed for a while, admiring the sculptures and gardens. Next on the agenda was to take a connecting subway to Mouffetard, of which we had heard very high opinions. Apparently, it's some sort of street filled with flea markets, boutiques, and cafés.
After searching for the corresponding metro without avail, we needed to stop and ask a meandering pedestrian, "Où se trouve le métro?" ("Where is the metro?")
Apparently, I had such a good accent she couldn't tell me apart from the French...I'm (most likely unduly) flattered! ;)
However, by that time it was extremely late to get to Mouffetard...and we came home instead. We had reservations at a little French restaurant in a hidden square, off of Rue Antoine, just a short walk from our apartment. While the atmosphere was lovely, and the waiter was charming, the soup (French-onion, of course) was the best of our food.
The walk home was chilly, and we noticed the clouds coming in above...the rain and lower temperatures due on day six were starting to come in.
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