In an effort to avoid the crowds as much as possible we left the hotel to be at the Louvre for its opening at 9 am. Started at Louvre history, to ancient Egypt, ancient Mesopotamians, large format European painters like Gericault. Down a long gallery to the Mona Lisa. Yup, that's it. The mysterious smile that attracts so many visitors mysteriously. Unlike the museum's other da Vinci paintings that are virtually ignored. Early Renaissance to Nike of Samothrace which has the best placement atop a long staircase after a grand gallery. I liked the Romantic fantasy paintings of the galleries as ruins. How often do I say to myself that something would be better as a ruin? Lunch at the museum cafe. I have soft spot for museum cafes. The current ranking leader is the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York's new cafe in the basement. My favorite part of lunch was yogurt in a ceramic pot. Despite aching feet, carried on to Napoleon III apartments and northern European painters. It was a test of endurance. Saw an American guide giving a lecture to middle-aged women on Corot. I could do that and hatched a plan to start art history tours for Americans (my mother and her friends being the model customer).
Sat in the Tuileries gardens, laid out on bench and took nap. Down Rue de Rivoli to WH Smith (English) bookshop, but again, did not buy anything. Cut over to Colette. The items in vogue are robot action figures, the cool Japanese kind, of course, but I had no qualms passing over those. All the store employees looked like dirty NYC lower East Side rocker boys--I can see that at home for free. I do admire the Colette aesthetic of choosing a few select items for display. Back west to Samaritaine department store. I was immediately drawn to the Paul Smith, Ted Baker, and Agnes B clothes. Reason overcame vanity. Brian bought some gifts for his people. Stopped by McDonalds to use their wee-fee on Brian's laptop, but his battery was dead. Plan hatched to charge battery, eat dinner near hotel, and head to McDonalds. Dinner was couscous with roasted chicken. The security guard at McDonalds explained that the wee-fee doesn't work and it is apparently only available to subscribers. Since we now possessed our weekly carte d'orange metro tickets, down to internet cafe. Lots of people send me messages but its all spam. I'd also like to discuss the French keyboard. The key placement differences I can get used to but the punctuation posed more problems. And being able to press ! without a shift must surely lead to sentences on! anti-depressants!!! The American keyboard requires the extra effort of a shift key to get an exclamation point so our sentences generally end with a firm and polite period.
