Soaking up the Parisian Sun (Sunday, October 23, 2011)

Love this city.

Natalie started our day by scrambling eggs for all of us. We didn’t rush it, knowing this was our last full day of sightseeing. Brian packed a lunch for us, and off we went.

First we went to the Louvre, the enormous museum that we considered skipping altogether. But it’s not terribly expensive, and Rita suggested that we just pick a few things to see. That’s what we did.

Of course we went to see the Mona Lisa. We had heard it was small and much more modest than its fame suggests, and that was true. However, many would-be pop stars dream of paparazzi like this. A huge crowd of people maneuvering to the front of the line to get a photo of a painting they don’t really seem to look at with their actual eyes. Her colors are rich and deep, and the painting is subtle, and it’s completely at odds with the mob scene played out before it!

We examined the Wedding Feast at Cana, found the Venus de Milo, and then made our way to the Napoleon III apartments. The canopy bed is very much to Natalie’s liking, and we are considering remodeling our entire first floor into a dining room like this one so that on New Year’s Eve, everyone can sit at the table together. Well, maybe not. I’m pretty sure we have a few weight-bearing walls on the first floor.

Next up: Notre Dame cathedral. We walked there, passing through a pet market on the way. Cages of birds and bunnies, tanks of fish, and all the birdhouses you could ever imagine. Now we face the begging for a bird when we get home. Eventually we got to Notre Dame. Again, all the superlatives apply. And this cathedral still feels like a place of worship. The architecture, paintings, sculpture and light are thrilling. We had considered taking the tower tour as well, but the line was long and we wanted to enjoy the sunshine too.

A great place to enjoy the sunshine is the Luxembourg Gardens. This was on Allison’s to-see list, because she has a picture book called “La La Rose” that is set in this very garden. Half of Paris was there, enjoying what might be the last sunny, warm Sunday of the year. I think they were also recovering from the sadness of losing the rugby World Cup to New Zealand that morning. People sat in groups around the pond, around the playgrounds, around the bocce court, and everywhere else possible. Allison went into the big playground, and Andrew, her ever-suffering big brother, accompanied her as her adult. It was hard to tear her away. She was a tad disappointed that the pony rides mentioned in her book were finished for the season, but she got over it.

That ended our to-do list, because we had tried to keep it modest. So we paged through the guide book, and headed over to Pompidou Centre, a modern art museum. We were finished with museums, so we went to the big plaza in front of it, where street performers gathered and tired backpackers sat, ate their lunches and watched the street theater. We watched a comedian coaxing strangers to do hilarious things for about an hour, then found some dinner. After eating, we made our way back to the hotel, thus ending our shining few moments in Paris.

We could not have asked for better weather this entire trip! None of us want to leave Paris, but all of us are feeling the call of home. Comfy beds, familiar foods and surroundings, and friends top the list of things missed most, not to mention our silly little dog, Sophie, who is eating up the attention doled out by both of our parents while we’re gone. It’s almost time to go home.