Saturday and Sunday in Paris Summer 2011

Paris
21/08/2011 (for both Saturday and Sunday

I did the "walk in the Park" in the large public park next to Cite' Universitaire (see photo) and planned my trip by bus to the Louve for tomorrow. An Arts Student cannot visit Paris without this pilgrimage!

Photo It was a beautiful summers day with a gentle breeze and this was an island of "spring" colour.

I continued on with my walk and circumnavigated the Cite' Universitaire complex, in so doing located another two supermarkets and another couple of pastry shops. No Orange Telecom outlet yet.

The Louvre
Sunday the 21/08/2011

For the seventh time, over a period of years, I planned my visit to the Louve, this time using buses rather than the Metro (which has always been my favorite means of transport). The problem is that you do not get to see much of the Paris scenery except Metro stations! Also I am more or less forced to use the bus as the it is some distance to a Metro (not all that far, I located one on my walk yesterday).

According to my research a Number 67 bus should take me past Louvre-Rivoli and loop out to the Pigalle and back to Cite again. Worst case I end up back where I started! As it turned out I did not recognize the Louvre-Rivoli Stade (No Pyramid!!) and did a bus tour of the Pigalle before looping back along the river where I did recognize the Louvre building and jumped off. Local buses stop behind the main building, not in front as the tour buses do; i.e., no view of the Pyramid therefore wrong search image.

Once through the security lines I went straight to the Information desk to apply for a Student free-pass. They would accept that I was a student, but could not be convinced that I was under 26 years old. I tried "Researcher", "Teacher", etc but by then I had blown my chances. Ageism!

Photo Crowds entering the Louvre "Pyramid", typical of the usual congestion. The crowds inside increased the heat of an already hot/humid day.

 Usual lines and milling crowds but I got my mandatory photo of the Mona Lisa. Two actually:

Photo My career seventh photo of Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, over the heads of the seven or eight deep scrum of tourists.

The first photo was "with illegal flash" courtesy of another tourist in the front row. All "we" got was reflections of the flash off the glass case!! Second photo with no flash was better but the Text books have by far better reproductions. In fact if I was the Louvre I would have a reproduction hanging there and the original tucked away in an environment controlled safe.

The "medieval Louvre" in the sub-basement came as a rescue from the heat and crowds. I did manage most of the "Italians" and a lot of the French painters. Took a detailed look at the glass and ceramics this time as well, but the crowds beat me in the end.

I jumped on a Number 21 Bus because the on-line information promised it would stop at "Stade: Cite' Universtaire", which it did, during a rain-shower! All up a good day.