Americans in Paris... Day 3 Recap

Ugh. Another morning, another late-ish start. We had an imposing schedule planned - Notre Dame, Saint Chappelle, the Louvre, and the Eiffel Tower. We only ended up doing two of those things in the end.

We set out on foot in the direction of Notre Dame. This may have been one of our big mistakes, in retrospect. Looking at a map, things look fairly close together and you think you'll be stopping at a cafe or a boulangerie for some coffee and croissants so the walk should be no big deal. Well, when it's spritzing rain and you feel like you can't find a cafe or bakery to save your life, it's a very, very long walk indeed. we did find a little cafe around the corner from the National Assembly where we had a nice coffee, and did find a bakery with some croissants and pain au chocolat, but it just never felt as easy as it should have been. I don't know how to describe it and maybe we had bad luck by happening to walk on one street versus another (even though we tried to pop up or down a block or two when we seemed to be in a deserted area), but it was just a frustrating pain in the butt and it always seemed to happen to us.

Anyway, we made it to Notre Dame, passing a long, long line to get into Saint Chappelle (so we passed on it entirely) along the way. We toured the inside of Notre Dame, but again, the line to get up into the towers was long, and we just didn't have the spirit to deal with it in the mucky weather and spritzing rain, and with the specter of visiting the Louvre still ahead of us. So we passed.

We trudged over to the Lourve, searching for a crepe stand somewhere along the way. Again, it was one of those things that I just expected to be there... and we were walking along the Rue de Rivoli, a fairly major shopping road. We found one crepe stand, but the little hot plate wasn't working, so that was a bust. Finally, about five minutes later, we happened upon another little crepe stand and ordered two ham and cheese crepes for ourselves. Those things sat in our stomach like blocks of lead for the next couple of hours, but they gave us enough energy to get through the Louvre.

The Louvre. What can one say about it. It's immense. Imposing. Simultaneously crowded and abandoned, depending on which room you are in. We thought we were being ruthless with our itinerary - only visiting the Greek and Roman sculptures and the Italian renaissance art, but even that proved to be utterly exhausting. We did see the Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa, but in the end they were completely underwhelming. And because the Louvre was so insanely huge, even the stuff that I do love (Botticellis and Lippis and Titians and Canovas and Michelanglos) just wasn't that enjoyable.

Mentally, I was comparing the Louvre to the British Museum and National Gallery in London and the Uffizzi in Florence. In my opinion, the British Museum was much better organized with respect to it's Egyptian, Greek, and Roman collections. It didn't seem as scattered and seemed to tell a story rather than just showing off what they had. Same with the National Gallery's collection of Italian Renaissance art - the rooms were smaller, allowing you to spend time with some of the paintings and really get into them, rather than feeling like you had to see everything at once. Likewise with the Uffizzi. Again, there is no shortage of amazing famous art there - but again, the rooms are smaller, attendance is tightly controlled, and I feel like you can enjoy the art rather than being shuttled quickly by it. The Louvre, to me, feels organized in such a way to keep folks moving through the huge rooms. I know that there is an entire science behind museum collections and displays, and I wonder if this comes into play with the Louvre since it is such an immense space and huge tourist destination.

Also, the Venus de Milo is not that hot. :)

Anyway, we finally escaped the madness of the Louvre, feeling like we had seen too much to process and nothing at all. We refueled with an eclair and pain au chocolat from a pastry shop, and then made our way back to the apartment for another rest before dinner. After the days events, and again with the dismal weather, we were just feeling very blah about Paris.

The evening's events redeemed Paris for us, just a little though. Dinner that night was at Au Bon Accueil, quite literally in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. We were seated next to another American couple, the ambiance was very modern romantic, and the service and food were on par with our first night's experience. My starter was octopus in a ceviche style with a tomato-like salsa. Simply out of this world. There was a lot of acid to flavor the unique texture of the octopus, and I do not think that I've ever tasted anything better. If we had stayed another night, I would have returned for the octopus alone. It was excellent. DH had a simple salad dressed with a raspberry vinaigrette, Parmigano Reggiano, and walnuts. Yummy. For dinner, I had grilled sea bream (think trout) on fennel with a side of potato puree, and DH had an incredible sirloin steak with a roasted potato pancake. DH's steak was a revelation - perfectly, perfectly cooked, and with the first bite, you expected the nice tender taste of meat (which there was) but then there was this tasty caramelized crust that took a good steak and made it transcendent. Yum, yum, yum.

For dessert we both had a molten chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream, lovely perfection. Our neighboring Americans had had the same dish (my question about it had led to us striking up a conversation throughout the rest of our dinner). All in all, our experience at dinner went a long way in redeeming our time in Paris, but the best was yet to come.

I had wanted to see the Eiffel Tower "sparkling" the entire time we were in Paris, but we never seemed to catch it, leading me to believe that the "sparkling" was just a part of the display celebrating France's presidency of the EU, which had ended a little while ago. On our walk back to the apartment that night, I caught a glimpse of the flashing reflection of the Eiffel tower in the windows the buildings lining the street. DH and I ran about 3 blocks over to the park next to the Eiffel Tower and watched the sparkling lights for nearly five minutes until they ended. We got some pictures (which I am sure won't turn out in the end) but it just seemed like the perfect ending to a much better night. We walked back to the apartment, packed up our things for our morning flight back to England the next morning, and fell dead into bed from exhaustion.