dear all,
today we went to the louvre. there was much discussion the night before as to what time we should leave the hotel, as this sunday is the only free day at the louvre for the whole month so we were thinking massive queues. many minutes of discussion later we decided to leave the hotel at 6.30am, to walk to the station and arrive at the louvre around 7amish...this was dans magnificent idea to allow 2 HOURS to queue.
as soon as we got to the louvre station at 7am, we knew something was wrong..where were all the crowds? it was still pitch black and the only person we saw near the louvre was the homeless bum weeing in the drain..he then went back sleep under the light pole...he clearly wasnt interested in the louvre.
at this point we gave dan shit because we could have still been in bed!but as we were already there we watched them clean the louvre and began the queue ourselves..we were in line to be the first ones into the louvre!!!
2 hours later..3 chocolate crossaints, 2 toasted sandwiches, 3 hot chocolates, 2 coffees, 20 photos of us in the dark, dad chatting to a nice polish man and mum getting chatted up by the weird canadian bicycle man (she totally shot him down when she mentioned the husband business..he left quiet quickly then)..we were the very first people into the louvre. and by the time we got in, the queue was massive behind us, so even though we gave you shit dan, we still love you...even when you think its hilarious to burp the most massivest burp in a huge hall fall of 15th century paintings...he bought mt evelyn culture to paris...be proud tina.
as we were the first ones into the lourve, we made our way straight to the mona lisa. she's very small and was still gazing into the future with her pretty smile. after seeing the masterpiece we moved onto the rest of the louvre..and when i say the rest, its a massive museum and we never saw all of it.
however highlights included, picasso, napoleons apartments (thanks jenny, they were amazing.)the apartment was commissioned by napoleon and is a collection of rooms including dining room seating 50 people on one table, and bedroom with HUGE chandelliers, big curtains and sculptures and paintings all over the roof and walls..true opulence.
also saw the history of the louvre building, orginally it was a castle built in the 12th century, and all the foundations can still be seen underground.
then onto the egyptian section, mesoptamia, french sculptures and many many more paintings. i loved the louvre and it was amazing to see the real versions of paintings i have studied and only seen in books...dan, dad and bec found it more interesting to see how many penis' they could photograph and video..aahhem..ken, theres plenty of booby in the louvre for you...google "gabrielle d'Estrees and one of her sisters".
the metro was easy today, dad nearly lost the plot when he couldnt find his wallet on the train..check the other pocket dad. mind you that wasnt the first time dad went looking for something..we got through the xray machines at the louvre and ran as quick as we could to the mona lisa..and it wasnt till we calmed down after seeing the mona lisa that dads face dropped and he remembered that he was once carrying a video camera around and no longer was...mmm...then followed a crazy run back to the entrance of the louvre and the xray machines (15 minute walk away) only to find that the camera was stashed in the crossaint bag..oops.
the day finally ended at 5pm ish..we had been on our feet for 10 hours and they are still aching and stinging now..hopefully they will be ok(the bottle of red is helping to soothe the pain..and enhance dads snoring) because tomorrow we are going on a tour of paris which includes the eiffel tower, mont marte district and a cruise on the river seine.
hope you all had a nice weekend,
glenda, yep i did feel like a teenager iceskating again. love mandy.
love jess..mandy, steve, bec and dan.
p.s. there are more photos
