Philip and Jenny Cain
InspiredElectrons
L’Opera Garnier and le Louvre
Jun 30th
That is what we saw today. After eating some yummy breakfast/lunch of quiche lorraine and cafe au lait, we headed out to see the sights. Our feet were rested and we were rested, having slept in until late :) The opera house was amazing. It was really really fun to see, and best of all we were yet to find out, it was not that crowded. Hmm, I guess it’s not on every tourists’ must-see list.
On to the Louvre. OMG. It was disgustingly crowded. Seriously, we walked in and almost walked right back out. It was the equivalent of walking into Disneyland in the middle of summer. Ugh. However, we braced ourselves and pushed on. We made it this far, might as well go all the way, right? Well, unfortunately with that many people in one space it just impossible for you to enjoy yourself. Now, I can imagine the Louvre on a winter day, non-tourist season and having a whole space almost to yourself to get lost in….oh man, that would be lovely. This was not. However, I will try to be positive…The architecture of the place was gorgeous!! That was about the only thing I enjoyed. The building itself is amazing piece of artwork. We went and saw the Mona Lisa….woohoo! It was this small picture, encased by heavy, heavy glass, with a HUGE crowd around it all taking pictures WITH flash. Oh yeah, that’s another thing we simply could not believe – they let you take pictures in there. FLASH pictures!!! We couldn’t believe that. Needless to say, we did not spend a whole lot of time in there.
I just figured out what bugged me about the whole thing. Phil and I aren’t really that interested in art history. We were not all the excited about seeing the Louvre b/c visual art just isn’t our thing. However, there was this unspoken pressure that since we are in Paris, we just have to go to the Louvre. What is it about it that has made it a must-see? So that is why we went and that is why there were so many other people there. Doing the same thing as us. So I watched all these people filing past and not even enjoying the art, or just pretending to. There is no way you can even take in the whole place in one day. It’s huge. It would take months and months of recurring visits, in my opinion, to really soak up the whole thing. So the Louvre, which really is this amazing place of rich beauty and art history, has been turned into this Disneyland art museum and that really disappoints and almost disgusts me. The Louvre is not being appreciated for the beautiful place it is, but instead is being used for tourism and money. Sad. Ok, off of my soap box and on to other things….
After we emerged into sunlight and fresh air we were starving. So we plopped ourselves down at the nearest cafe and enjoyed a pretty american meal at a french cafe (well, what do you expect? we were in a high tourist area) But it was tasty. But note to self: don’t eat by the tourist areas mostly b/c you’ll get americanized french food.
We headed back to our hotel exhausted after only 5 1/2 hours of sightseeing and took a long nap. We stayed in for the rest of the night, except for when I ran out to get us a baguette and wine for dinner :)
A self-guided tour of Paris by metro and foot…
Jun 29th
Ow ow ow, is what I have to say. My feet are so sore from all the walking we did yesterday. You can see everything in Paris by foot, but ouch. It’s a lot of walking. Why did we walk so much? Weeellllll, we couldn’t find metro stations. We seemed to stop, look at a map, see where the next one was, but then somehow walk right by it. Each time it was “oh, we’ll just make it to the next one…” I’m sure we ended up walking a couple of extra miles. Let’s see, if you’re looking at a map of Paris, we walked from the Eiffel Tower to the Arc d’Triomphe, down Champs Elysees and George V boulevard, down along the Seine next to le Louvre, Musee d’Orsay, les Invalides, and a little past and finally found a metro. Maybe it doesn’t look far on the map, but my aching feet will tell you otherwise (and I was in tennis!)
Despite the aching feet, we did enjoy ourselves. It was like we gave ourselves an overview of Paris so we could decide what we really wanted to spend our time on. For example, we saw that the line to go up the Eiffel tower was equivalent to the line for Indiana Jones at Disneyland. Hmm…come back later is what we thought. Also, the Louvre is quite stunning from the outside so who can imagine what it’ll look like from the inside! This one bridge, which I havne’t figured out the name to yet, was goregeous and tempting to walk across, so we’ll have to do that when our feet can handle it. Notre Dame was stunning, of course. Musee d’Orsay is right there and beautiful.
Our intent was to get up early and head straight to the Eiffel Tower to see if we could beat the lines, but oops….it’s 11:00 and we’re just showering. We were out late seeing Montmartre. We ate in the Cafe de 2 Moulins (2 Windmills Cafe), which is the cafe from the movie, Amelie, of which we are great fans. Then it was on to the redlight district. Hmmmm….won’t go into detail. Let’s just say, you thought Las Vegas was bad……Anway, walked to find such famous places as Le Chat Noir and Moulin Rouge. Took some pics and headed back. Oh yeah, riding the subway at 11:30 pm like pros (and there were still TONS of people out everywhere)
We did find out that the Eiffel Tower stays open until midnight, so maybe we’ll go for a ride tonight instead. We are going to L’Opera Garnier today and then the Louvre.
We haven’t uploaded pics yet, but we have some. We didn’t go crazy yesterday b/c we knew we’d be coming back to all the places we saw….so hang tight, be patient. We are having a great time!
Phil’s glasses
Jun 27th
So they tell you to take a back up pair of glasses with you for good reason! I mean, you never think you’re glasses are going to really and truly break when you’re on vacation, do you? I mean, you’re on vacation! Well, Phil’s did. And nothing caused it that we know. Just good ol’ wear and tear. The side piece just up and snapped in two as he was putting them on. We tried scotch taping them just for a temporary solution and it looked sooo bad! We had to actually tape part of the lens in order to hold the side piece on hahahaha. So that didn’t work.
Our hostess’ name that day was Mary, and she was a lovely Irish women who we talked with over breakfast. She was great fun to talk to. So colorful and animated and funny! Well, she was so nice with the whole situation. She called her optician’s office to see if they could help us and they had a repair person on sight! So she sent us off and we had to go into Limerick but it was worth it. The repair guy was soooooo nice!
He took a look and sadly, it was a no go on repairing it. The side piece was made out of titanium, so no chance of saudering it. He couldn’t unscrew it from the lens and just put on a whole new side b/c the lens was actually cracked and that is why they broke. If he took the screw out a chunk of lens would just fall off. Phil has rimless glasses, which are a) expensive and b) more fragile and fickle but c) very nice looking for someone who has to wear glasses all the time!
Well, we said oh well, he did bring his sunglasses as a back up pair (but Phil didnt like them and so wasn’t going to really wear them, and plus, who wants to wear sunglasses inside?) And, again, who really thinks their glasses are going to break while you are oversees on holiday? They tell you to take a copy of your prescription too. Phil didn’t b/c he thought he’d just call if anything happened. That’s a fine idea until you realize that it’s 2 am back home!! And plus, new glasses over there would have cost us an arm and a leg.
Sooooo, how does the story resolve you are probably wondering. A happy ending! He found out we had the sunglasses and said he could lighten the lenses for us. So we gave him the sunglasses and he set to work. He wasn’t able to lighten the lenses…at least not quickly. So, he all of a sudden comes out of his little office and has the sunglasses frames and in them are clear lenses. He cut new lenses right there for the frames and somehow got the prescription from the tinted lenses!!! Yay!!! And he wouldn’t let us give him one single penny for it. Not one. Not even let us buy his lunch. Sweet, sweet man.
Yay! Phil has glasses again. The lenses aren’t perfect….I’m guessing it’s probably b/c of his astigmatism in one eye and the lens isn’t fitted for that so it’s a little blurry for him in the right eye. But, he can see and enjoy Paris, and I think he looks hot in his box-frame trendy glasses :)
Moral of the story: Yes, your glasses could just randomly break while you are overseas and with as much irony of situation as possible!
Paris, Day 1:
Jun 27th
Hello from Paris, France!!! We arrived at 5:30 pm (8:30 am your time) and had to take a bus into Paris (1 hour ride). Next, we walked a few minutes to the nearest metro station and took that for about 1/2 hour to our stop. Then, we walked about 5 minutes or so down the street and found our hotel. Piece of cake! :P
Our hotel is very nice. We are staying here for 5 nights which will be a nice change from changing places every night like we did in Ireland. We are staying in the right bank of Paris (which means North of the Seine River). It is close to attractions such as the Bastille and L’Opera Garnier, and is not terribly far from the Louvre or Arc de Triomphe via la metro.
Once we checked into our hotel, we unpacked a bit. Again, it felt nice to be able to spread our our stuff in anticipation of a longer stay, rather than trying to keep it ready to move on the next night. We are in desperate need of doing some laundry, although we did resort to some sink washing of necessities in Ireland to get us by. It’s a nice room, although pretty tiny….but hey, who needs a big room? Just a comfortable bed and bathroom.
I was personally starving so we set out in search of some food in the local area. I had the inspiration of just getting some bread, cheese and wine for dinner. Each item had to be acquired from a different shop (which I was aware of and, I thought, part of the fun!). We first went to une boulangerie/patisserie (bakery/pastry shop) just across the street for some fresh baked baguettes. Next, around the corner we found a little shop selling assorted beverages. I’m not sure what you call that. But we bought a bottle of beaujolais (a light burgundy) and a bottle of water for extremely cheap and the wine is VERY tasty. No wonder they drink so much of it here! Finally, we found a supermarche (supermarket) where I bought some fromage (cheese), salami and macaroons (also very cheap). We came back to hotel, asked the front deks to open our wine and tucked in. Tear off a hunk of baguette, slap on a slice of salami, and tear off a piece of cheese to put on it and voila! an instant sandwich! Add a sip of wine from our hotel-room-cup (ghetto!!) and yum!!!!!! An authentic French meal, in our eyes, anyway! Here is a pic of our first meal in Paris:
Tomorrow we start the sight-seeing. We haven’t decided yet what we are going to do first. We have 4 full days to cram as much in as possible, so we shall see! Some things from our “must see” list include the Louvre, Musee d’Orsay, Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, Sacre Coeur, L’Opera Garnier, and a trip up/down the Seine River. Well, it’s 10:12 here and I’ve got 1/4 bottle of wine left to finish before I pass out…errr, I mean fall asleep :P
Wednesday: The Ring of Kerry
Jun 25th
(posted 1pm Irish Standard Time)
We started the drive around the southwestern tip of Ireland, called the Ring of Kerry. Luckily, a little beach bar had open WiFi, so we’re trying to get our most recent photos uploaded pronto.
Ireland ’08 Flickr set
(being updated as I type)
London ’08 Flickr set
(in case you missed it)