Day 7: Paris

>> Monday, July 20, 2009


Our first day in Paris! This was really our first alone time which is awesome. We were pretty tired from the long train ride (about 3-4hours) that started at 7AM, but we mustarded up the energy to go to the Louvre on the first day. Probably not the smartest of plans since we were already tired and really aren't art people.

This is the carousel outside the Louvre. I tried to talk Michael into going on it but he wouldn't. I even gave him the "this is a once in a lifetime" speech Amber gave me to get me ontop of the rock in Rhine Falls. Still he wimped out.

The L'arc de triomphe du Carrousel outside the Louvre

Michael is brushing up on his photography skills. We all know I am the photographer in the family. But he is getting alot better!



Me making Michael be silly. He was not happy about this.


In the Lobby of the Louvre. This place is HUGE! There are 35,000 works of art on display in the Louvre. To devote 30 seconds to each and ignoring the time taken walking from one work to the next, it would take about thirteen 24 hour days to see each piece. Holy Moly don't like Art that much!

Being Silly on the escalator to one of the many sections


Michael "walking like an Egyptian" with the Egyptians. Didn't mind being silly here did he? This is actually towards the end of our tour of art! We were grasping at straws to stay awake and motivated. Lets just say all of the sculptures started looking a tad "dirty"

The only piece of art that matters or that we knew anything about while we were there. Once we stood in a ginourmous room with hoards of people and snapped this pitiful sideview angle of the Mona Lisa we were like "Check: Louvre completed" We did breeze through some other galleries mainly because we couldn't find our way out of the dang place.

Michael was highly distrurbed by the many pictures of naked baby Jesus. He wouldn't let me take any pictures of those. They painted a lot of naked pictures in the day. Or maybe that is all art and we are not cultured. I am more of a landscape girl myself. Although I was impressed at the number of real women pictures. They weren't all model thing and they had lumps and bumps in all their glory!
Madame re Cansser (sp)

Louis DAVID. This one reminded me of Liybug.

Shared the room with the Mona Lisa. One of the largest I have ever seen.

Mess with the bull you get the horns....or lose your horns...whatever.

Crown of Louis XV

CLOTHED Beautiful Woman (Another Louis DAVID)


We finally saw a section we would be interested in....the history of the Louvre. Michael wanted to know how it survived the war, what the building used to be, etc. So we enter.....da da da.....it's all in French. Dammit! I am going to check the Library for a book to read up on it.
I think these guys said it best......get me out of here before I stab myself in the eye!


Leaving the Louvre.
Goodbye beautiful art that we knew nothing about. Goodbye!

Okay so I am going to be honest. After the Louvre I was drained. I just wasn't feeling it. Soooo....we went to the room and took a nap. A very long nap. And when we awoke it was dark!
But what better to do on your first night in Paris than go to the Eiffiel Tower at night!
One of my better shots. Still getting a hold on the night settings on the Nikon.







From the underside looking up!

Viva La France!

Blurry...but this is the light show they do throughout the night. It makes the tower twinkle...just like the exspensive Christmas Lights Michael will no longer let me buy.

I love the sky in this one!

It really was just beautiful! Some of these turned out so well that I am going to get them blown up for our living room. I can replace the pictures from proffessional photographers with ones that I actually took. In front of the tower was a huge lawn where people were just hanging out, playing music, drinking, etc. It was amazing!
A really fun first day...minus all the boring art. haha! But hey we did it! "once in a lifetime" Right?

3 comments:

Nicole Faby July 20, 2009 at 12:28 PM  

Looks awesome! i love the one of yall in front of the tower! Great job on the pics and keeping us uptodate on your trip! Still jealous of this awesome expierience you guys got to have!

secret_diary_of_a_single_mom July 20, 2009 at 12:42 PM  

I love the scarf!! :) Very cool pictures. Ditto ... I am jealous!

Stephaine Eads July 20, 2009 at 12:44 PM  

Yeah I bought a scarf in Paris too a blue one. Washed it when I got home and it died. Ugh.