After shopping, we got lunch at a restaurant. We all had sandwiches. I had a croque monsieur, which has become one of my favorite things to eat in Europe. We then went and got coffee and sat and drank it until we had to meet at the Louvre.
The Musee du Louvre is everything it is cracked up to be. Let me first say that it is HUGE! When we first got there, the five of us took some pictures outside at the glass pyramid and at the fountain. We then had to meet the rest of the group inside of the Louvre at the upside down glass pyramid, which was so cool! We got some pretty funny pictures at the upside down pryamid as we waited for Gerry to buy our tickets to go inside the museum. I never knew the glass pyramids outside and inside the Louvre were so big!
While Gerry was buying our tickets, Katie, Jen and I wanted to go get a locker for all of our morning purchases and coats. I did not want to carry my bags around the Louvre for the whole 3+ hours we were there, so we went to get a locker. When we returned to the area where the group had been, everyone was gone. The museum was so crowded with people. There had to be thousands of people there. We looked around for our group and couldn't find them, but after a few minutes we spotted Rachel's hot pink backpack. She was looking for us luckily and she took us to the rest of the group, who had moved to a hallway to wait for Gerry. Thanks Rachel!
After we got our tickets, we went to the one part of the museum. The first half of our time in the Louvre was with the entire group. With the group, we saw the Saint-Francis of Assisi painting, the Mona Lisa, and the great hall of French Painters. When you walk into the room with the Mona Lisa, everyone is looking at the painting of her. It is kind of funny because on the opposite wall from the painting of Mona Lisa there is a very large painting that almost takes up the entire wall and it is the biggest painting I have ever seen, but yet it goes unrecognized by so many people because they are focused on the Mona Lisa.
After seeing part of the Louvre in a group, we broke up into individual groups to find some of the paintings by the artists that we have been studying to do our exposes. Katie and I found paintings that were done by our one artist, Velázquez. It was really neat to see the paintings in person after studying the artist who painted them.Everything in the Louvre was something amazing to see. Just the architecture of the building was exciting. It is hard to believe that we were there for 3 hours and we hardly saw any of the Louvre. It would literally take months to see everything. Although I'm not always that interested in art, I loved the Louvre and everything I saw there!
After meeting the group once again at the upside down pyramid, we left the Louvre Around 4 Pm, got on a metro, and took the metro to the La Defense district, which is a business district in Paris. It was a pretty part of Paris and the buildings were phenomenal. This is the only part of the city where there is skyscrapers, which is how you know Paris is very different from a USA city, where there are skyscrapers everywhere. In La Defense we saw the Arche de La Defense, a sculpture by Miro, a water fountain show, and many other neat things.
From the La Defense district, we went to the Arc de Triomphe, where we were a part of the parade and ceremony of the rekindling of the eternal flame at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The Arc de Triomphe is a monument the honors those who fought for France during the Napoleonic Wars and it also includes the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. For the parade, they shut the street off and we got to walk behind all the "important people" in the parade. We then got to see the ceremony under the Arc de Triomphe at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which was blocked off to the public.Taylor and Brady got to put flowers on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier during the ceremony. It was so cool to participate in and was definitely one of those once in a lifetime experiences.
After the ceremony was over, we took the metro and returned to FIAP for dinner and some relaxation. After such a busy and nonstop day, we are all very tired and our feet are very sore. Once again, we have a busy day tomorrow. Thankfully, I am sleeping really well here in Paris! Good night!
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