Our Southeast Asian travel blog is temporarily relocated to Paris. Instead of ca phe sua da, we've been having a lot of cafe, (which is a single shot espresso here.)
We arrived at our hotel with no trouble at mid morning on Tuesday and with the usual jet lag. Taking a lesson from our trip to London when, eager not to waste a minute of the trip, we sleepwalked through Westminster Abbey on the first morning and remember nothing about it, this time we took a little nap first.
We started off with an easy trip to Notre Dame Cathedral on Tuesday afternoon, and it was an incredible privilege to be in one of the world's oldest, largest and most beautiful buildings. It's difficult to describe what it's like to see something so grand for the first time, and I expect it will end up being the highlight of the trip.
This morning we started off with the Louvre, thoroughly intimidated by how much there is to see. Despite it being the slow season now, we found it plenty crowded in the galleries, although the only line we've experienced is with the coat check. I hate to imagine what it's like during the busy season. In all honesty, it's very difficult to let the art make an impression in an environment like that, and I've come away from other museums more charged up from the experience. We managed to see a large portion of it including all the most famous highlights. Winged Victory was my favorite. I've heard so often that the Mona Lisa is smaller in person than people expect that I expected it to be smaller than it was.
After we felt thoroughly dosed with art, we walked the distance between there and the Champs Elysee, down the length of that, up to the top of the Arc de Triomphe and all the way back again. And then, at twilight, back into the Louvre for another dose of 18th and 19th century sculpture. (It's open late on Wed. night and still crowded then, too.)
The view from the top of the Arc de Triomphe was fun to see, though we're not having great weather for it. It's been overcast all the time and drizzling some of the time. But it has been warm enough that walking around outside is comfortable. We've even eaten at a sidewalk cafe and had crepes sitting on a park bench.
We haven't had great luck with the food yet. It's difficult to coordinate the guidebook recommendations with our budget with the sightseeing destinations. The perfect place is never just outside the museum. I've been eating a lot of ham and cheese sandwiches.
We put in 10 miles easily today, and out legs are killing us. We have a similar agenda for tomorrow. We got one of the 4-day museum passes -- Wednesday to Saturday -- and have to keep up the pace for it to work out as a legitimate bargain. It does save some standing in line for tickets, though that's not too much a concern during the slow season.
We're having a lot of fun and learning a lot. Ilene says she understands Saigon better after seeing Paris -- how much the colonists were trying to recreate Paris there. None of the legendary rudeness yet. Lots of patience with our lack of French. I got the bartender at our local brasserie to talk football with me. I've been discovering how much "travel" in my mind is equated with "travel in Vietnam." I keep having to remind myself that I don't have to be anxious about knowing where my next source of drinking water is going to come from -- that even though I'm not at home I can still get water out of a tap whenever I like.
I'm getting tired of espresso and tried to get a "French press" style coffee. Nobody knows what I'm talking about, though. That's my mission for tomorrow.
-Robert
