Exhaustion

Gare du Nore, Paris, France

I am so beyond tired right now. Paris was awesome, but next time I'm going to hire someone to follow me around and carry my stuff. And another guy with a wheelbarrow to push me around. I can't remember when I've walked around so much. Everything in Paris requires walking, and almost everything involves stairs. And not like 12. We're talking 387. I checked this morning and my legs are indeed 18% sexier.

Here is a quick run-down of everything before I forget...

The Louvre
What a huge place! Seriously, if I were living here, I'd have megalomaniacal illusions of grandeur too. Everything is large and intricate and ornate. We must have come at a particularly popular time too, since the some of the rooms were packed to the gills with people

We started off with the traditional sprint to the Mona Lisa. There were so many people in the room that there was actually a line to get into if you wanted to take a picture from the center.

The next stop were the French crown jewels. Serious bling. I particularly liked the diamond and emerald necklace. I thought the crown made of pearls looked ugly.

And then there was the Greco-Roman sculptures. Excuse me, Greek, Etruscan, and Roman sculptures. Seriously, I could have spent all day here. There is just something about the human body captured in stone that is fascinating to me. Fortunately, Gumby also enjoyed this area. Of course we saw the Venus de Milo and Winged Victory. I think we ended up spending most of our time here.

Although it would have been cool to see the Egyptian exhibits and the Mesopotamian exhibits closer, but you can't really do the Louvre justice in one day. I had seen Lamassu in the past in my art history class. But I didn't really appreciate their sheer size.

The last big thing we saw was Napoleon's apartments. Apparently Napoleon III decided to take up residence in the Louvre for awhile. I didn't think it would be interesting, but I was thinking more along the lines of my apartment. Of course it was lavish and gaudy. It was very apparent that he lived well.

The nice thing about the Louvre is that they will hold your bags for you while you are in the museum. Since we had to check out of our hotel, it was nice to not have to carry all of our stuff around. Even nicer was the fact that we could leave them there all day, as long as we were back by 5:45 to pick them up. Keeping that in mind, we then left for lunch!

The Catacombs
Okay, we left for lunch, but ended up at the catacombs. Seriously though, there was a line, so we grabbed some sandwiches and queued up. I can't remember the type of sandwich I had (sorry, Gumby), but I think it started with a 'p'. It was pretty much chicken, lettuce, and tomato on half-cooked French bread that was then cooked altogether until the bread was done. It was very tasty and hit the spot.

The catacombs, or as I like to call it, the Hall of Happiness and Positive Affirmations, were pretty cool. It involved, of course, (sorry, Will, more whining) lots of stairs. Most of it was literally piles and piles and piles and piles of human remains. Every couple of yards there were plaques. Since they were all in French, it was a good thing to have Gumby there. Most of the plaques had catchy little phrases like, "All men eventually die", "Your wisdom or station in life have absolutely no bearing on the fact you're going to die", and "Sometimes it's better to die than to keep living". You know, happy thoughts.

Suggestions for going to the catacombs:

• Realize that if you're over 6'0" (my approximate height), you're going to be ducking a lot, especially at the beginning
• Bring a flashlight. You can see lots of cool stuff that's not illuminated. But PLEASE don't be a Japanese tourist and shine a flashlight on everything. It is very distracting for those of us who like to look at other things and read at our own pace.
• If you're at all interested in the placards, keep a native speaker with you.
  

Another thing I love about the catacombs is that it goes into and comes out of two random-looking buildings. I would not have been able to locate the exit of the catacombs on the locating-est day of my life, even with an electric locating machine.

The Louvre
We had to pick up our stuff. We then wandered through their extensive gift shops. They had some pretty cool stuff. Gumby also made use of the post office, which sold international envelopes at a less expensive price than Toulouse.

French Pastry
I can't remember the name of this shop, which is unfortunate. I can't remember the name of the dessert I got either, which is more unfortunate. It had a layer of whole strawberries and raspberries, then a layer of flaky crust. The flaky part reminded me of baklava. Then there was another layer of a light cream, like whipped cream, but better, then another flaky layer, then a layer of a strawberry/raspberry jam-like substance, then the crust. As I bit into it, I realized the middle cream layer also had whole strawberries and raspberries embedded into it. Anyone who doubts the existence of a benevolent and merciful God only needs to come to France and eat the pasties there.

Vins et Terroirs
We had a meal that definitely goes on my list of top 10 meals ever. Well, okay, no such list actually exists, but if it did, it would go pretty high up there. They started with the bread. Now I'm not a big bread person, especially French bread. It always tastes hard and stale when I have it. This bread changed my mind. It was soft and warm and oh so good.

For the first course, I had Ravioles dé Royan, which of course are cheese ravioli from Royan. I think this was the best pasta dish I ever had. The pasta was cooked exactly right to be firm, but tender. There was not only cheese inside the pasta, but the broth itself was a very light cream that complimented the ravioli perfectly.

Next came the duck, at the recommendation of our waiter. When I went to hold it with my fork to cut a piece off, the duck literally fell off of the bone. This came with a cube of scalloped potatoes. I'll be completely honest, these weren't quite as good as the ones grandma makes, but they had a "baked" flavor to them that went wonderfully with the duck. If it sounds awesome, that's 'cause it was. I managed to finish the duck, but couldn't put the potatoes away. I was full enough that I couldn't order dessert.

Train Station
Especially after last weeks misadventure, we thought it to be especially prudent to go ahead and get to our respective train stations early. I have to say that I had a great weekend in Paris, but most of it was due to the fact that I had an awesome tour guide. Gumby had been to Paris at least five times before and was more than gracious in revisiting places that she had already been (although we did hit plenty of new stuff for her!). Thank you, Erika, for a wonderfully well-guided weekend!