The Musee D'Orsay is Fabulous! I saw Impressionist pieces I've studied for years and some I never knew. My favourites remain Van Gogh, Vuillard and Pissarro. I saw a Lautrec and realized for the first time how large his paintings are. And a beautiful Degas sculpture of the little dancer. But it was as I made it down to the end of the building that my eyes fell upon something to make my heart jump. A scale model of the Paris Opera house complete with a cut away of the stage showing both flys and traps. Fabulous for this theatre techie! The last exhibit I saw was along the upper floor. Exquisite Art Nouveau furnishings. Again the scale is overwhelming since I have only ever seen these in books.
The Louvre is of course the Louvre. We like almost everyone else went immediately to the Mona Lisa. My daughter took her time gazing on the lady. Along the way to her I saw Wing Victory and the Virgin of the Rocks. My heart is singing. But then we sought out the ancients and there we found the Code of Hammarubi and a lion from the Babylon Gate. My husband is now also happy. So when we found more sculptures carved from the rare purple marble - Arthur's face lit up and for the four of us our visit is a success.
Then there are the monuments we visited. First the Arc de Triomphe. My cousin doesn't really explain too much, just indicates a doorway and before I can grasp what is happening we are climbing to the top. The crowd is thick so I can't retreat, neither can Arthur and he is not great when climbing alot of stairs. We all make it to the top - 287 steps- and then up to the top where my husband immediately blanches. He hates heights especially open air platforms. The view is terrific but he is green. We take some pictures and then descend. Strangely we can take an elevator down!
Now it's the Eiffel Tower! As we arrive we can see the long snake of a line up and Arthur starts to worry. But this time the special passes we have really are special passes and we only have to show up at the gate by 8pm to go up the tower. Great - that gives us a few minutes to see if we can find a geocache. Which would have worked if I could have gatten my phone to actually give us a longitude and latitude but that app is doing stupid things. We only know there is one by the Wall of Peace- a nice stroll for twenty minutes and a quick jog in 10 minutes leaving us 15minutes to find the cache. We had seven people looking and we didn't succeed. Oh well. If you're ever there - look for a small rock that could hold a few coins.
Then it was time. The one thing my kids have been looking forward to for months was finally happening. Miriam is beside herself with anticipation. The tickets may have helped us jump the line to enter but there were still all those people who were also travelling to the very top. So while my husband remained on the second level with our back packs, we spent an hour lining up for the elevator. The ride up was exciting but when we got to the top Arthur couldn't cope so down he and I came, leaving Miriam with the cousins to enjoy the view and take a ton of pictures. But when we picked up my husband on the second level and were looking for the way back to ground level, Arthur accidentally looked through a glass floor and the sight made him scream. Staff appeared out of the blue and we were whisked onto an elevator immediately. Once back on the ground, Arthur is much happier.
To celebrate I buy two hideous Eiffel Tower replicas from a couple of illegal vendors. It's amusing to watch them. They mill about trying to catch tourists as they exit until the local police show up then there's a flurry as they flee down side lanes. A few minutes pass and they return. The whole area now feels like going to the fair on a summer evening. The air is fresh with a breeze, the lights are twinkling, groups chatter and kids cry and everyone seems relaxed. Eventually the others return to terra firma and join us. Miriam's face is glowing from the experience.
Dinner is al freco. We got our food from a Paris version of a chip wagon - it served crepes and fries! And we took our meal down to the river to eat while we watched the boats go by. We are supposed to now take a cruise along the Seine but by the time we got to the right location we have missed the last boat. Tired and a little disappointed at least we now know exactly where we need to come tomorrow to catch the boat and bonus - there's a great restaurant nearby which we can come to as we await twilight. Afterall you must see Paris by night.
So all that's left to describe is our long awaited boat trip down the Seine at night. We see the buildings lit up. We pass under nine bridges and each one is different (two of them seem the repository for hundreds of combination locks) and all along the banks are people sitting drinking, talking, kissing, dancing. It is everything I thought it would be and it has been well worth waiting for.
The Tour Eiffel at night.
So tonight is our last night. You might think we would be cramming in those last few memories but instead I am packing our bags. We arrived with four and travel home with five! We have shopped like there was no tomorrow, which in a sense there isn't, for we will, in all likelihood, not be back again. I have loved having for one glorious trip the feeling of abundance. If we wanted to eat it -we did, if we wanted to do it or see it -we did. And if we fell in love regardless of whether it was a Goblet of Murano Glass or a crisp white Parisienne blouse - we bought it. This has been a trip of a lifetime for us. Now we are ready to come home!
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