July 18 - Vini, Vidi, Vici

I think when people say live each day as if it were your last this is the kind of day they have in mind!   Surely we didn’t do all this in ONE day?!?!

Whenever we are in a city that offers a hop on/hop off bus tour we take it.  You get around to every worthwhile attraction and even if you don’t get off the bus you can at least say you saw them.  Usually headphones are provided with English commentary.  Paris has at least two companies.  We purchase a two day pass & will use this as our daytime transportation & switch to the Metro for night or anytime we want to move in the opposite direction from the bus route.  It is becoming apparent that Paris is vulgar in its over-the-top opulence.  Even the humblest buildings have some measure of ornamentation.   We climb up & take a seat to enjoy the sights.  The soundtrack is cheesy but entertaining. There's lots of Edith Piaff & a song called Champs Élysées that is stuck in my head to this day.   And then there are the knock-outs that we pass by;  the Paris Opera, the Louvre, Tuilleries Garden, Place de la Concorde, up the Champs Élysées, the Eiffel Tower, where we decide to disembark.   

 Sometimes when you’ve seen reproductions of something the real thing doesn’t live up to the hype.  Not the case with the Eiffel Tower.  It’s big, bad ass & right now painted a beautiful shade of bronze.  I mean...just...WOW is all I can say.  And I’ve seen it before.  I was in Paris about 22 years ago pushing 1 year old Miles around in a stroller.  Still it is just breathtaking.  We spend some time walking around underneath  and taking photos but choose not to go up in it, it's pricey & the lines are crazy long.   Instead we tuck into a cafe at the base for some lunch & to write some more post cards.  The little tourist shop next to the cafe has official Tour de France ball caps for the outrageous sum of 26 Euros - we cave & purchase two.  

After lunch we stroll through the Parc Champ de Mars and aimlessly stumble onto the Musée Rodin.  Mylene had recommended this and in the Rick Steves guide it was suggested to buy a museum pass at one of the smaller museums.  They sell them here.  This will not only get us in to many museums but also send us to the front of the line.  Skipping the wait at the Louvre alone (where we plan to go at some point) makes it worth the price of the pass.  We enter & move through the soulful permanent collection pieces displayed inside the 18th century former hotel Biron where Rodin used rooms as studio space.  Eventually he donated his entire collection of sculptures (along with paintings by Van Gogh & Renoir) to the French State under the condition that they turn the buildings into a museum dedicated to his work.  Many works are displayed in the beautiful gardens surrounding the museum.

From here we thought we would try to see the catacombs but there was a detour on the bus & instead we got off & ambled through the gorgeous Luxembourg Gardens.  Lots of people are out enjoying the nice weather and little children are racing toy sailboats in a massive pond.  

We still have a shred of energy left, however the bus is no longer running.  We look at our options on our museum pass & hop on the Metro for the Center Pompidou, the contemporary art museum.  Our pass only allows us on two floors of the permanent collection.  I’m kind of bummed because there’s a Lichtenstein show in the special exhibition gallery.  I needn’t have worried though, we don’t even have time to make it through one floor of the compelling collection before they are closing.  Crazy how two hours has flown by!  Also, I am nearly crawling as we have been on the go for 11 hours by now & we still want to stop & have dinner before we get home.  

We hop on the Metro to our neighborhood & have dinner at the St Augustin.  We sit in an open window, enjoying the sunset & congratulating ourselves on a wildly successful day conquering the city.  We realize we can’t keep this pace up for long & try to pick one thing to focus on tomorrow.  As much as we would like to go to the Louvre, maybe it’s too overwhelming?  Maybe we will go back to the Pompidou & spend more time with the kind of art we really prefer?  Maybe we are just too tired & cranky & need to get a good night’s sleep before making a decision we might regret...

Oh my aching dogs!!