Pages From My Passport: Paris Day 3

Our third day in Paris, 12 August, was a little calmer than the previous day, but we still managed to fit in quite a bit.

The first stop of the day, after croissants of course, was Notre Dame Cathedral. Outside was a huge British WYD group evangilizing and singing "Jesus Christo, Alleluia" for which another Brazilian group joined them. The cathedral itself was rather underwhelming in comparison to some lesser known churches... and I didn't see any hunchbacks! =(

From Notre Dame, we went to the utterly exceptional and intricate St. Etienne, situated in the shadows of the Pantheon. After some time there, we went to the larger Capitol building-esque Pantheon, which houses some incredibly famous and influential persons, but when faced with a five euro entry fee each, we chose not to bother. Our goal for France was to not spend money on entrance fees. Instead of dropping ten euro to see a building, we went to a supermarket to do what I do best... eat. We spent the same amount as the entrance fee would have been on olives for Damian, cherry tomatoes for me, mozarella, baguette, and a cheap bottle of Bordeaux. We sat in a park next to two homeless men (our only seating option) and ate, feeling guilty and awkward with every delicious bite.

We then made our way to the famous Louvre, for which we got in for free - yay being under twenty-six! Since Damian and I aren't the biggest fans of museums, and since we were surprisingly disappointed with the displays - the Barnes Foundation in Merion, PA and the Philadelphia Art Museum far trump the Louvre in my opinion - we just saw the main attractions. The Venus de Milo was our first, which I made sure to see and photograph for Kyra Aman, followed by some similarly stunning statues and a sphinx (the only thing worthwhile in the joke of an Egyptian section). Next was the Mona Lisa, passing the Wings of Victory and the Wedding Feast at Cana on the way. The room that the Mona Lisa is housed in is packed with stunning art, massive canvases, and masterworks in their own right, but they are largely ignored for little Mona. Her beauty is certainly not overrated and, to my delight, she was much bigger than I expected - I was anticipating a painting the size of an average piece of printer paper. Going to see Madame Lisa is almost more worth it to watch the spectacle of camera touting tourists trying to kill each other in order to take a photo (and not even appreciate the art in person), then it is to actually see her with your own two eyes.

The last thing I was itching to see was Hammurabi's Code, you know "an eye for an eye"? On the way to the large, black, etched phallic piece, we got lost among more statues than I ever knew existed.

Tired and over/underwhelmed, we left the Louvre for our home base.