Paris - Day 2

Entry by the editor:

I wanted to add in a bit about our first night at our hotel. We were scheduled to take a short walk around the neighborhood, led by our Viking host, at 1 pm, but when we met in the lobby there was a wedding getting ready to start and the band for the reception was warming up in the ballroom downstairs from the lobby. They were so loud we were forced to go outside so our host could explain where we were going. After the short tour, we returned to the hotel but the wedding was occuring, so it had quieted down and we didn't hear anything until we came back from dinner, when the reception was in full swing. In our room, which was on the first floor right above the lobby, we could hear the band quite easily. We assumed they would quiet down by 10 pm, as is common in the states, but when we went to bed it was hard to sleep. We were exhausted, as we had not slept on the flights and had tried to stay awake to readjust to our new time zone. We did sleep fitfully for a bit, but the wedding was for an Arab couple, and the band was playing music that was more wailing than singing, and it would stop and start constantly so it would quiet down, then get noisy, and on and on and on...we thought surely 11 pm it would stop, then midnight, but nooo. In between we would sleep for a few minutes, then wake when the sing song wailing would start up, so at 2 am we looked up noise laws in Paris, which said there was quiet time between 10 pm and 7 am. We called the front desk to complain, but no one answered, so at 2:30 I put on a bathrobe and went down to the front desk to ask them to tell the band to quiet down. The desk clerk told me the music had just ended as the wedding couple had just gone up to their room. As he was saying this, the band started up again and I told him this could not continue as Paris law provides for a quiet time. He stated that the noise was not loud enough to be under the law, and I lost it. I said I didn't care about Paris law, but that since this was a 5 star hotel, and it was 2:30 in the morning, and I was there in my bathrobe because I couldn't sleep, common sense would dictate that they should be concerned about their guests ability to sleep. I expected them to tell the band to quiet down. He said he would ask them to close the ballroom doors but that was it. The music stopped about 3:30 am, and we slept until 5:30 am. Welcome to Paris!

Today included a walk down the Avenue of the Champs-Elysées, Petit Palais and the Louvre.  Lots of walking and art!

Avenue of the Champs-Elysées

Nearly 1.2 miles long and following the historic axis of the city , it is a central traffic route linking the Place de la Concorde to the Place Charles-de-Gaulle, featuring the Arc de Triomphe,  in the 8th arrondissement.

Curious building amongst the classics on the avenue was this foot locker building all in glass

Little funny aside...in looking for a sign with the words with Champs Elysées, I started with this picture below but struggled with it because it was on a glass building and the reflections of the trees in the window made it difficult to get a clear picture.  I moved back and forth, and zoomed in and out in trying to get that "perfect" shot.   I spent quite a bit of time trying to get that shot.  Finally, I decided that this picture was not going to be what I wanted and headed back to Bob who was patiently waiting for me to get that perfect shot.  He did comment that I was taking a picture of the name on a bank and he was watching to see if a security guard would come out and nab me for spying and trying scoping out the bank cameras...guess it did look rather suspicious.

Further down the avenue we arrived at the Petit and Grand Palais, now museums.

Petit Palais with the "We are Here" exhibit - the Petit Palais opens its doors to urban artists, inviting them to engage in a subtle dialogue with its permanent collections and architecture. A true exploration of urban art is thus offered to visitors through a trail of new works, accessible free of charge.

Grand Palais right across the street from the Petite Palais

We did visit the Petit Palais

However, mingled with the urban art was a Monet - Sunset on the Seine

The Good Samaritan by Morot

 We were struck by the 3 dimensionality of this work....the monks all in black appearing to be closest to us with the funeral attendants behind them

Portrait of Sarah Bernhardt by Georges Clairin

Inside courtyard of the Petit Palais where we had a quick bite to eat at the 1902 Cafe

Pont Alexandre III - Running between the Hôtel des Invalides on the Left Bank and the Grand and Petit Palais on the Right, the beautiful Pont Alexandre III exhibits a feast of gorgeous detail.  A symbol of Franco-Russian alliance, this splendid deck arch bridge takes its name from Tsar Alexander III, and Nicholas II, his son, laid the first stone in a ceremony in 1896. The bridge was inaugurated during the 1900 Paris Exposition (World's Fair).

Bob suggested that this lamp on the bridge could have been the inspiration for Lumiere in Beauty and the Beast.

On to the Louvre for our appointed entry time - tickets bought months in advance.  First off, we were fascinated by I.M. Pei's glass pyramid entrance into the Louvre:

Entering into this pyramid you descend down into the cavernous den under it to mill with the crowd heading here and there to explore one of the three major sectors of the Louvre.

We ascended stairs to visit the Winged Victory impressively flying at the top of the climb

The Louvre had massive continuous hallways with so much to see...

One of which was, of course, the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci..but a bit anticlimactic for us...quite small and too many people crowding around to see it.

....you'll have to visit for yourself to see the artwork....long day, lots of walking but so fun!