Our second day of Paris was our museum day (and there are really a lot of museums in Paris). We began our day with the discovery of a local street market, leading to the enjoyment of a nutella crepe for breakfast. Then we were on our way to the Musée de l’Orangerie, where I was introduced to my favorite piece of art in Paris. The Musée de l’Orangerie features Monet’s amazing paintings, Les Nymphéas, or Water Lilies. These paintings are displayed in two conjoining oval-shaped rooms where the paintings wrap around the walls. Monet’s paintings depict a pond and beautiful greenery; you feel like you are actually standing within some mystic French garden (turns out they are meant to represent Monet’s flower garden at Giverny). What I loved most about these paintings – besides the beautiful colors – was Monet’s style of the painting. Up close you see non-descript strokes of color, but take a few steps back and the strokes of color blend together to make a complete, beautiful image that can only add to his credibility as a genius.
Our next destination was the famous Louvre, but before taking on so much artwork at once we first needed some brain food . My roommates and I walked to a nearby bakery and we decided to try a French hot dog, which consists of two hot dogs burrowed in a large, hot baguette, topped with spicy mustard and melted cheese. Turns out I was the only one who liked it (I admit it had a unique taste due to the extra kick of horse radish). We were now ready for the Louvre.
We started out by looking at Egyptian artifacts, then moved on to the paintings. The interesting thing about the Louvre is that you’re allowed to take pictures, which I’m not used to being able to do at all in museums. I probably asked my roommates about five times, “So, we’re allowed to take pictures?” before I actually took the liberty to snap some photos. Around us we could see people wearing headphones informing them on the different artwork. We were being cheap and didn’t want to pay for any kind of tour, so we decided to make a tour of our own. Between the four of us, we were able to make up our own stories for the various statues and paintings we saw, which entertained us for a while during our visit to Louvre.
If you didn’t know already, the Louvre is one of the world’s largest museums, making it impossible to see everything in one day. Because of this, we made the Mona Lisa our goal for the Louvre. Once we saw her infamous smile, we would fill our day with other sights in Paris. When we did in fact reach the Mona Lisa, we discovered that the painting is actually quite small, and you can’t even reach within five feet of the painting because 1) it’s blocked off and 2) there is always a huge crowd of people in front of it trying to take a decent picture of the painting. My own picture was decent enough so I was happy.
After the Louvre, we rushed over to take a tour of the Opera house, only to find out that it was temporarily closed. We were disappointed, but took the time to purchase some macaroons from Pierre Hermé and brought them with us to a little coffee spot. After all of our walking, we had a relaxing break sipping coffee and eating our colorful macaroons, which melted in our mouth. They were actually the best macaroons I’ve ever had.
Our last destination was to see Moulin Rouge, the birth place of the can-can dance. We got there right after dark, just in time to see the signs lit up. After taking it in and snapping some photos we were off to find a much needed meal. I decided to continue my French dinner spirit and ordered duck. Once again, French food lived up to its standards.
My trip to Paris appropriately ended with mass on Sunday morning at Notre Dame. Unfortunately, the bird man was no longer there.
