Paris - 9/11/10

Well, first, allow me to update the rest of the France section. After day one, I woke up by myself and walked over to the Musee D'Orsee (I think this is the spelling). This was, overall, one of the better museums I had gone to thus far on the trip. There was good representation from many of the artists I enjoy, especially the impressionists....saw paintings by Van Gogh, Gauguin, Pissarro, Monet, Rembrandt, and a card-catalogue's worth of other painters with whom I wasn't familiar. The crowning achievement of the D'Orsee was their sculpture collection, however, which was vast. One of the the ticket packages included a sculpture garden with works by Rodin, and I was disappointed that when I attempted to purchase said package I was denied as too much time had allegedly passed in the day. Happily, however, there was a good share of Rodin as well as countless other sculptors in the regular portions of the museum.

After that I wandered around aimlessly South of the Seine river, which divides Paris into two halves. I randomly stumbled upon Notre Dame, which was fortunate because I had forgotten that it was present in Paris at this point and probably would not have seen it otherwise. This cathedral was stunning, staggering. I managed to leave there just a little before the good part of the sunset, so at least the light was dynamic for a few of my photos of the place. It's very strange though, walking along the tourist-portioned sections along the perimeters of the cathedral, all while regular Catholic services are going on for the people within the velvet rope barriers. It feels like the tourist presence is incredibly obtrusive, and I'm not quite certain how the regular church patrons (as well as diocese) put up with all the flashing lights and muffled footsteps crashing about their place of worship at all hours. Even for as majestic as that church is, the rampant tourism of the place rather cheapened the experience of going there. I stayed for a bit of the service and then left when I felt overwhelmed. It's a powerful place; there is no escaping the vibrations of their pipe organ.

The next day I wandered up to the train station to purchase my ticket to Amsterdam, because I needed to book it beforehand to reserve space. This put me up by Montmartre, so I took in some of the sights there. Sacre Coure is an amazing chapel on the pinpoint top of a steep hill, and when you get up to the top of it you not only have an amazing tour of a chapel - which, if not rivaling Notre Dame, at least comes close – but also an amazing panoramic view of all of Southern Paris. There are people littered all over the grassier parts of the hill, as well as musicians playing harps and guitars and various scammers and schemers trying to rope people in to purchasing small bits of colored string by using basic psychological principles. I'm really glad I made it to this spot. Afterwards, I walked down through Montmartre and got a coffee at the cafe in which Amelie was shot. It looked drastically different from it's representation in the movie, but they certainly capitalize on the marketing involved in being associated with a blockbuster movie~

On my last day in Paris I woke up, said goodbye to the people I had met at the hostel, and walked over to the Louvre. This museum was too much, literally. If I had a week of exploring it I would perhaps then come close to seeing the majority of their art. Instead, you have to be very selective about where and what you intend to see, because the crowds are incredibly daunting, both slowing you down in between exhibits and speeding you up to the point where you cannot comfortable observe a painting for more than ten seconds without feeling as though you are causing a bottlenecking of the crowd behind you. At least, this was the case in the Denon wing, which is where most of the famous paintings (Mona Lisa, etc) are. I hit this spot first because I knew the crowds would be smaller early in the morning...I didn't go back later but I imagine that they were daunting (at best) in the afternoon. Then I toured through various cultural sections, ending in the Louvre sculpture gardens. I had thought that the D'Orsee had an intimidating sculpture collection, but the Louvre put it to shame (mostly older pieces, but still.) I spent far too long here, and ended up leaving the museum right after in order to make it back to the train station for the Amsterdam rail.