Early morning at the Lourve
Mona Lisa - drawing card at the Lourve
Venus de Milo
2000 people wrapped around the free Lourve entrance on Bastille Day
Military parade on Bastille Day in ParisWednesday, July 14th
We started early today - leaving the hotel at 7:30am for our first destination - the Lourve. We learned yesterday that the Lourve has free entry on Bastille Day. Very nice - might as well take advantage of this. We counted on a big line before the 9am opening - so we arrived at 8:15am.
Neither Randy nor I have much of an artisitc mind (as we both are engineers). We decided to give it a chance. By the time the gate was ready to open at 9am - the line was wrapped around the glass pyramidal-shaped entrance. I'd guess there were 2000 people in line. We were near the front and passed through the gate within about 10 minutes.
What we saw first was predictable and amusing at the same time. There was a mass convoy headed straight for the Mona Lisa. You didn't even need to look at the map - just follow the crowd. People had heads down and were power walking, elbowing others out of the way, to get the mornings first glances of the 1 treasure the Lourve is most famous for.
We walked around a couple hours. Wow - big, vast. It was like going through a maze. At no point did I really know where I was. You could spend a week here if art was your thing. The bulk of the displays were paintings, drawings, and sculptures. We took in some of the more famous artists. It's impressive but overwhelming at the same time.
10:30am - we left the Lourve and headed out to walk the distance to the Champs-Elysees. Today was Bastille Day in Paris. July 14 - the celebration of French Independence. Why is this date honored? The Bastille was built in the 14th century to defend the royal city. It was an 8-towered fortress. However, the city quickly expanded and the Bastille lost its military role. It became a prison - the cells symbolised the arbitrary nature of royal power. On July 14, 1789, 600 rioters stormed the Bastille. At the cost of 100 deaths, they were able to free 6 prisoners. This marked the starting point of the French Revolution. The Bastille was destroyed but a huge column remains today at the site in recognition of the July 14th event.
When we entered the courtyard outside the Lourve, there was an airshow going on. Planes and fighter jets were passing overhead. We walked for about 30 minutes - then the rains came. I've been extraordinarily lucky most of this trip with weather. Today - I had memories of Ireland.
There was a military parade going on between the hours of 10:00-11:45am. We caught the last part of this. Very respectful, quiet atmosphere. The parade consisted solely of the many troops walking arm in arm.
We wanted to walk the rest of the area to the Champs-Elysees, but we just couldn't get around the barricades from the parade route. We did see one of the famous hotels in Paris - the Hotel de Crillon. This was listed in my 1000 Things book. Really impressive. Royalty-type figures were entering/leaving the guarded doorways.
It was nearing 1pm - we had a late checkout from our hotel at 2pm. We needed to get back. The nearest metro was closed. People were jamming into each other on the streets. We almost got ran over by a guy pushing his bike and nearly elbowed to the floor while waiting in line to purchase our metro tickets. With the rain and parade conclusion - there was total chaos.
We finally got our train back to the hotel where we had to run 1/2 mile in downpour conditions to reach the entrance. We were drenched head to toe. A quick change and then some lunch. What do we do? Get a taxi to the airport or roll our bags through tropical storms. Since the streets were experiencing flash flooding, we bit the bullet and took a taxi. We were told 50 euro would do the trick - not too bad split by 2.
We get the taxi - 1 hour into it - we're at a dead stop. Traffic jam. The streets are flooded - we're not moving anywhere. Our taxi driver takes a diversion which added another 40 euro to our bill. Tough luck for sure - but this move probably saved us from missing our flight and being stranded in Paris.
Once at the airport, we had about 30 minutes. The flight to London Heathrow went well - no issues. We arrived around 7:30pm. We grabbed some dinner and relaxed. Our next flight to Edinburgh was delayed. We got on the plane around 9:30pm and then sat on the tarmac an additional 45 minutes. These delays added up to a 11:30pm arrival in Edinburgh.
We took a bus to the Waverly train station (close to our hotel) and then a taxi the final 1/2 mile. We could have walked - but dragging all our baggage without knowing positively where we were going wasn't a great idea at midnight. We checked in and next decided to walk over to our 2 hotels booked for Friday-Sunday. We originally had to book 2 separate places because Friday was not available at our weekend spot. Our goal was to see if there were any cancellations so we could stay at the same place all 3 nights. This didn't end up working out - but we now knew where the places were located - good for our late check-ins later in the week.
Night ends at 1:30am. Tomorrow we go to Carnoustie. Does the words Barry Burn or Jean Van de Velde ring a bell? We talked to a few guys on our bus transfer tonight. They were avid golfers - played all over the world. Their comment: "Carnoustie sticks out like a sore thumb. It's easily the hardest course I've ever played". Excellent - I can't wait!
We started early today - leaving the hotel at 7:30am for our first destination - the Lourve. We learned yesterday that the Lourve has free entry on Bastille Day. Very nice - might as well take advantage of this. We counted on a big line before the 9am opening - so we arrived at 8:15am.
Neither Randy nor I have much of an artisitc mind (as we both are engineers). We decided to give it a chance. By the time the gate was ready to open at 9am - the line was wrapped around the glass pyramidal-shaped entrance. I'd guess there were 2000 people in line. We were near the front and passed through the gate within about 10 minutes.
What we saw first was predictable and amusing at the same time. There was a mass convoy headed straight for the Mona Lisa. You didn't even need to look at the map - just follow the crowd. People had heads down and were power walking, elbowing others out of the way, to get the mornings first glances of the 1 treasure the Lourve is most famous for.
We walked around a couple hours. Wow - big, vast. It was like going through a maze. At no point did I really know where I was. You could spend a week here if art was your thing. The bulk of the displays were paintings, drawings, and sculptures. We took in some of the more famous artists. It's impressive but overwhelming at the same time.
10:30am - we left the Lourve and headed out to walk the distance to the Champs-Elysees. Today was Bastille Day in Paris. July 14 - the celebration of French Independence. Why is this date honored? The Bastille was built in the 14th century to defend the royal city. It was an 8-towered fortress. However, the city quickly expanded and the Bastille lost its military role. It became a prison - the cells symbolised the arbitrary nature of royal power. On July 14, 1789, 600 rioters stormed the Bastille. At the cost of 100 deaths, they were able to free 6 prisoners. This marked the starting point of the French Revolution. The Bastille was destroyed but a huge column remains today at the site in recognition of the July 14th event.
When we entered the courtyard outside the Lourve, there was an airshow going on. Planes and fighter jets were passing overhead. We walked for about 30 minutes - then the rains came. I've been extraordinarily lucky most of this trip with weather. Today - I had memories of Ireland.
There was a military parade going on between the hours of 10:00-11:45am. We caught the last part of this. Very respectful, quiet atmosphere. The parade consisted solely of the many troops walking arm in arm.
We wanted to walk the rest of the area to the Champs-Elysees, but we just couldn't get around the barricades from the parade route. We did see one of the famous hotels in Paris - the Hotel de Crillon. This was listed in my 1000 Things book. Really impressive. Royalty-type figures were entering/leaving the guarded doorways.
It was nearing 1pm - we had a late checkout from our hotel at 2pm. We needed to get back. The nearest metro was closed. People were jamming into each other on the streets. We almost got ran over by a guy pushing his bike and nearly elbowed to the floor while waiting in line to purchase our metro tickets. With the rain and parade conclusion - there was total chaos.
We finally got our train back to the hotel where we had to run 1/2 mile in downpour conditions to reach the entrance. We were drenched head to toe. A quick change and then some lunch. What do we do? Get a taxi to the airport or roll our bags through tropical storms. Since the streets were experiencing flash flooding, we bit the bullet and took a taxi. We were told 50 euro would do the trick - not too bad split by 2.
We get the taxi - 1 hour into it - we're at a dead stop. Traffic jam. The streets are flooded - we're not moving anywhere. Our taxi driver takes a diversion which added another 40 euro to our bill. Tough luck for sure - but this move probably saved us from missing our flight and being stranded in Paris.
Once at the airport, we had about 30 minutes. The flight to London Heathrow went well - no issues. We arrived around 7:30pm. We grabbed some dinner and relaxed. Our next flight to Edinburgh was delayed. We got on the plane around 9:30pm and then sat on the tarmac an additional 45 minutes. These delays added up to a 11:30pm arrival in Edinburgh.
We took a bus to the Waverly train station (close to our hotel) and then a taxi the final 1/2 mile. We could have walked - but dragging all our baggage without knowing positively where we were going wasn't a great idea at midnight. We checked in and next decided to walk over to our 2 hotels booked for Friday-Sunday. We originally had to book 2 separate places because Friday was not available at our weekend spot. Our goal was to see if there were any cancellations so we could stay at the same place all 3 nights. This didn't end up working out - but we now knew where the places were located - good for our late check-ins later in the week.
Night ends at 1:30am. Tomorrow we go to Carnoustie. Does the words Barry Burn or Jean Van de Velde ring a bell? We talked to a few guys on our bus transfer tonight. They were avid golfers - played all over the world. Their comment: "Carnoustie sticks out like a sore thumb. It's easily the hardest course I've ever played". Excellent - I can't wait!
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