Today was quite the marathon. First of all, our day began with a loud popping sound, smoke, and the smell of melted plastic. Keep in mind that Lindsey's straightener recently passed away due to a foreign wattage malfunction. Today we mourn the loss of one of Lindsey's converters, possibly my converter, and more possibly, my very nice hair dryer I have only had for 2 months or so. Now, we used hair dryers no problem in Belgium, we aren't sure why the straightener died there though. So this morning when she tried her hair dryer for the first time in Paris, we were not prepared for a fire. Nonetheless, I laughed until I cried. She got out her other converter and proceeded to dry her hair. So, if she ultimately had success, I can dry my hair too right? No. There was a pop, and then no outlets worked. Try explaining to a barely-English speaking Frenchman that your outlets are not working. Whatever, the outlets were out, I have no idea if my converter and dryer are dead and I will tell you why. Tonight when we got back, we decided we had to do something so we could charge our phones. I called down, that did nothing for us. I walked down, and explained for 10 minutes, the guy says okay....he shows up at our door, on a ladder, rooting around in the ceiling. He flips the breaker, and amazingly, power is restored, my phone is charging. He leaves, and Lindsey recommended that I test the hair dryer. Plug in, POP, SPARKS, OMG.....we had power for ten seconds. Literally. Then it was gone. We laughed for really long time, turns out Lindsey was laughing because she thought I had gotten shocked....Anyhow, I look at her and say, "I need you to help me." I roll a chair down the hall, crawl in it, move the ceiling panel, and look for a switch with our room number. Nothing. But there is only one switch that is off, I flip it, problem solved. But I will not be using a hair dryer tomorrow.
Now, to the important stuff. We started our day with a walk down Rue de Cler which is supposed to be an amazing little area that although small, has neat shops to see. As we walked we saw cheeses (2), chocolate (2), a fish market, restaurants, fruit stands, a dollar store, a supermarket, a flower shop, a butcher, and an old sign where there used to be a butcher for horse meat, hence the picture with the sign "Boucherie Chevaline." That sign is now hidden under an awning where crepes are sold....but we found it! We have also learned that 90% of the meat sold in the "supermarkets" is processed, heavily packaged product. The retail patties below, are a "family pack," the largest quantity of single package "fresh" meat we have seen at retail. Also, the TV dinners are not refrigerated, I took a picture of that too :)
**Please keep in mind, getting lost and/or walking 27,000 extra miles unintentionally is included in nearly every effort to find what we are looking for....Just a side note.**
Rue de Cler Shop Pictures:
The second part of our day consisted of what I have named the Mad Museum Dash. It began at the Louvre. Which I might add, it is a good thing we are not cultured. If we actually knew something about art, it could take days or a week to see, appreciate, and savior all of the art/sculptures/etc. Lucky for us, no culture/no art appreciation = Paris in 2 successful days. After the Louvre, was the Orangerie, and then the Orsay. Please keep the starred note above in mind while wondering why this took all day. I have not walked that much since Disneyland Family Trip 1995, and I am paralyzed from the waist down. Any way, we saw some amazing things I could never fathom, and we had a lot of fun.
The Louvre:
The Monna Lisa (Look in the back center of the room. It is small, and glass enclosed):
The Monna Lisa from the front of the crowd:
Neptune and the Horses of Marlay:
Orangerie:
The famous water lilies by Monet (they encompass nearly 360 degrees of a large, oval room):
Renoir (1900):
Picasso (1917-1918):
"Boef" by Soutine (1923):
On our way to the Orsay:
Orsay:
No pictures were allowed inside. This museum had work from Van Gogh, Monet and others. But there were 3 huge statues outside, a horse, an elephant, and a rhino, here is the horse:
Well that is the majorly abbreviated version of our day. We had breakfast at a Rue de Clear restaurant where we saw pick-pocketers get run-off by restaurant management. We had dinner back over by Notre Dame. We had eventful transportation experiences, and I took over 200 pictures. But I only have a couple minutes left on the hotel internet and I don't want it to cut me off. Tomorrow we have time to take one more museum loop to see the Pantheon and the Luxembourg Palace and Gardens, then we are off to London.
Good night from Paris for the last time!
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