The Louvre & World Cup Fever

Wednesday, July 5, 2006

We began our lovely day with none other than a slice of wheat toast smothered in Nutella. Ummmm, nutella. *drool* By the way, the wheat bread was really good (I don't even like wheat)! It wasn't anything fancy, just something you can pick up at your local grocery store. A slice is actually half the size of an American slice of bread. Ah, when are Americans going to learn to cut their portions in half?

Anyway, we went to the Louvre in the morning. Since our attention span tends to decrease with time at museums, we gave it a good two to three hours in this HUGE HUGE HUGE museum. We mainly wanted to see the most famous works of art.

Crossing the Seine on our way to the Louvre. Timo, you seriously live in the best place close to everything.


Outside the Louvre


I love the glass pyramid. So cool, I want one in front of my future house! Leo Ming Pei, a famous Chinese architect designed this pyramid.


Headless angel


Venus di Milo


Mona Lisa


There were no pictures allowed of the Mona Lisa. But I told Raf to take one anyway without flash. Right after he took it, someone that worked there told him to stop. There's about five guys walking around yelling at people. We were walking from one end of the painting to the other only to be followed by Mona Lisa's eyes (or Da Vinci in drag's eyes?)

This is outside the room that the Mona Lisa is in. Remember in the Da Vinci Code where the iron doors slam down? Pretty cool.


Downstairs where the ticket stands are. There is actually a lift that goes up and down in the middle of the stairway but they wouldn't let me ride it because it's only for handicapped people and strollers.


After the Louvre, we walked all the way down to the Orb which Napoleon stole from Egypt.

On our way to the Obelix. I got stuck!


Napolean stole this Obelix from Egypt. Can someone please explain to me how you can steal that without anyone noticing???


After this, we just kept walking until we hit Champs Elysees, a famous street for shopping and one of the avenues that reaches the Arc de Triomphe. We were super hungry since we already walked about two miles with our bodies just running on nutella so we decided to eat at yet another "average fast food" sandwich shop on Champs Elysees.

Raf had a baguette with mozzarella and tomato, while I ordered Provencal penne pasta and a tarte aux framboise. Let me tell you that this "average" sammich shop was so good! The Provencal penne pasta was loaded with veggies and a really tasty marinara sauce. It's probably most similar to what you can get at Pasta Pomodoro. The tarte aux framboise was so fucking good. They gave us a huge slice. Do you know how much they charge for an itty bitty slice at that cafe in Santana Row? And it's not even as good.



After we ate this very satisfying meal, we went shopping. We had to see the famous French brands in Paris. The Lacoste store was two stories and had everything. You can't get any of the good shit in America. There was this one man-purse that was SUPER cool that I wanted to get for Raf, but he refused! What a shame, it was super cute and only 85 Euros. I regret not buying it. =( (I got him a Coach man-purse for Christmas, but originally wanted to get him a Lacoste one. I went online and found a couple I liked but they weren't in the stores at home. I called Lacoste corporate who said they didn't sell the styles I liked in America. Then they told me to call Samsonite because they carry Lacoste stuff (?) but they didn't have them either. Dammit! Anyway, just a heads-up for your folks; if you are in Paris and really like something in Lacoste, just get it because you are not getting it anywhere in the states!) By the way, all the guys here have man-purses. hahaha! Raf came prepared. Now it's Timo's turn to get a bag. (Timo, don't get an REI bag to try to make your bag more "manly." A man-purse is a man-purse. You should go to Lacoste ASAP!)

After Lacoste, we made our way to this freaking huge DEPARTMENT store. You might have heard of it: Louis Vuitton. Of course there were all these Japanese people with huge LV shopping bags. How do they do it?


After we walked into Louis Vuitton, all of a sudden I felt really weak, hot, nauseous, and then had a tummy ache. It totally came out of nowhere! We walked around for awhile to look for a bathroom. I guess people don't go to the bathroom on this street. Then Raf went to go look for water since I hadn’t drank much the whole day. I guess people don't drink water on this street either. (There are actually fountains of drinking water laid out sporadically through the city, as well as self-cleaning toilets/port-o-potties but we couldn't find them). We were literally a block away from the Arc de Triomphe (we walked allll the way down Champs Elysees, but I didn't think I could make it without puking or all of a sudden shaking violently and passing out on the floor -- ok, I'm exaggerating but that is how I felt at the time), so we took the metro back home. After a good nap, I felt better and we took the metro back to check out the Arc de Triomphe, and to do more window shopping.

Yay, we made it. Some of the restaurants throw the baguettes out on the ground for the pigeons around this area. Ah, nice to know fresh baguettes will be sold in the morning.


The real Cartier


As we were walking around Cartier, I noticed a couple Japanese ladies drinking wine (surprise! They were probably spending loads of money and got free wine for being great customers) and talking to an Asian Cartier sales person. So this Asian lady passes us (which I had mistaken for the Japanese speaking one), and Raf asked her in French if she spoke Japanese. She said she didn't, then later asked me in English if I needed help. Turns out she was Chinese and was born in Shanghai. We ended up speaking in Mandarin, and then a little in Shanghainese. She was showing us a few things, and it was pretty funny because she was like "hmmm I'm trying to figure out what language to use." It's so neat to be switching languages like that! Her French was perfect (obviously) and so was her Chinese. Her English was pretty good as well. She also lives in Saint-Michel and recommended a good hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant to us. We didn't have time to try it, but I want to next time we visit.

After Cartier, we went back home and got ready for... you guessed it... dinner! Keep in mind that the France vs. Portugal game was on tonight so all the restaurants with televisions were packed! And so were the streets because everyone was standing outside the restaurants to watch the game.

Did I mention that the sun doesn't set here until around 9:40pm. How cool is that?


We finally decided on a fondue joint where we dined on:
• Rose wine
• Beouf et magret fondue
• Crab, shrimp, and smoked salmon salad (This was REALLY good. I normally don't go out of my way to order seafood salads)
• Mousse au chocolat (Really rich, one bite and I was done)



Fondue is actually not used with cheese unless requested. They bring out a fondue pot filled with oil, and you just cook your own meat. They provided about five different dipping sauces. FYI~ fondue originated from Switzerland in order to use up hardened cheese.



Since this restaurant didn't have a TV, one of the waiters was pacing around anxious about the score. Once he heard the cheers from the people outside, he actually paced down the restaurant doing these crazy hand gestures and going "YESS! YESS!!! YESS!!!" It was SO FUNNY!!!!!!!! The owner pulled him aside and was like "CALM DOWN! JUST CALM DOWN OK! YOU NEED TO CALM DOWN!" HAHAHAHAHH! I wish I had that on video.

After dinner, we joined the crowds in the streets to watch the rest of the game. Look, Timo's wearing flowers! Metro-Euro boy, here he comes!


The World Cup is bigger than God here. You don't see people getting this excited in church.


After France won, it was just chaos! Surprisingly, I (or anyone else) didn't get trampled. That is what I expected especially with this crowd. I remember being in Times Square on New Years getting bumped left and right, I wonder how they have such organized pedestrian chaos here. People are just nuts. They were hanging out of their cars left and right, and driving FAST.



In a huge fountain after the game! Timo literally lives right around the corner from this.


Where's the Speedo?


Then we decided to hit the metro to go to Champs Elysees to check out the big after-party.

The metro was so crowded and ended up being delayed for 45 minutes so we decided to walk there.


On our way over, we saw a Portuguese-French family walking down the street holding the Portuguese flag. The 8 year old kid said in French to his family, "I must have some real courage holding this flag right now." LOL!

A long walk later past the Louvre (remember, Raf and I already did this long walk earlier in the day!) Everytime we stopped to take pictures of people on top of their cars, they would stop traffic, pose, and scream/yell/chant for us.


Just look at the heads of people leading to the Arc de Triomphe! Insane, but very cool!


After walking and hanging out for an hour or so, we decided to trek back home. Raf and I really gained some mileage today. We walked about 10 miles TOTAL today (him and Timo ran an additional four miles earlier too!)

My feet were really starting to hurt. No pain no gain, I had fun walking all day. No wonder Europeans stay in shape even with all the rich foods they eat.


Ah, what a nice walk back. The Eiffel Tower lights up for ten minutes on the hour when it gets dark.


After seeing all the crazed futball fans on top of moving vehicles, motorcyclists revving their bikes, people all over the streets with French flags, and overall everyone having a grand time and singing/chanting/screaming/yelling with each other regardless of the fact that they were complete strangers, we finally made it home to rest our feet for the night.