Day 8 – Paris Last Day – Thursday May 31st

Chris and I met Rob at about 9:15 and went straight for the Louvre after a quick croissant. We accidentally came upon some ATM style machines that let you buy the tickets. It had no lines and was very convenient. We just walked in and avoided the crowds. We saw literally hundreds of sculptures and painting in the four hours that we were there. There were so many, in fact, that I think many of them lost their artistic value for me. They were all lined up in gallery after gallery, some without any readings on them at all. They just had plaques in French. I enjoyed “The Raft of the Medusa” the most of all. I thought it was just extraordinary how the triangular composition of the figures focused all of the viewer’s attention to one point. It was just amazing. I saw the Mona Lisa, but it really was not that big of a deal. It was small, far away, and looked just like it did everywhere else. I don’t understand what makes it so fine compared to “the Raft of Medusa.” Da Vinci had better. The statues of “The Winged Victory” and of “Psych and Cupid” were incredible. They were just so powerful up close. I had no idea how large “the Winged Victory actually was. The statue, “Venus de Milo,” was not as spectacular as I would have thought, though still very beautiful. I was not taken aback by it as much as the others. Napoleon’s Apartment was also very nice to see. I can’t imagine just hanging out in a place like that. It had to be awe-inspiring even then.

We ate at a food court. I had a chicken sandwich that was very good. We headed for the “Crazy Horse” cabaret to see if tickets were relatively cheap. They had cheap prices, but we would have to stand for the two-hour show. No one besides me thought it would be worth it, so we did not buy tickets. We headed back to the hotel and worked on some Computer Science homework and other necessary planning for the days ahead.

At about 5:40, we headed to the Pantheon and the Luxembourg gardens. We made it to the Pantheon at 6:05, and the last entry was at 5:45, so I just took pictures outside. Apparently, all I missed was a pendulum, so I didn’t feel too bad. It began to rain just as we entered the park, so we headed to go eat dinner instead. The first cafe ended up just being a bar with fruit and cheese, so we went to another nearby restaurant that was reasonably priced considering the portions and the quality of the food. I had lamb, a salad, and chocolate mousse for a little over 20 euros. We headed back afterwards and met up with some people. I found out that there was free wi-fi very close to the hotel, so I went and set up my blog for a while.

A large group of us went up to the top floor of the Eiffel Tower at about 10pm. The crowds were not awful, and the view was incredible. On the hour every hour for ten minutes, it sparkled, so we enjoyed that very much. We walked back after about an hour and went to bed, hoping to get enough rest before a very early wakeup call.