Feb 17, 2007
We´re tearing through the countryside at well over 150 miles per hour on a TGV train southbound from Paris to Bordeaux, through Tarbes and Dax, and ultimately to Lourdes, which lies at the foot of the mighty Pyrenées. We go seeking repose from the rush of Paris; we venture seeking solace in the hot springs of Cauterets.
Yesterday we tackled the Louvre - er, most of it anyway - which is no small feat, and anyone familiar with the size and scope of this museum will understand and agrree. It´s hard to believe it built as a hunting residence originally (or at least part of it). So many works of art - Renaissance masterpieces, Egyptian and Assyrian artifacts, thousands of canvases and objets d´art each calling for individual attention. It´s enough to wear one out. Here´s the low down: The Mona Lisa, in all its glory, leaves the real one seeming small and blassé. C´est interessant, n´est-ce pas? Venus de Milo and Winged Victory at Samothrace are stunning and majestic sculptures; the Code of Hammurabi is an imposing black stone megalith - befitting the harsh laws it represented; and there were canvasses, by David, Géricault, Véronèse, and Rubens, that leave one gasping at their enormity. Try painting a 20x30 foot canvass in the intense realism of the Renaissance style!
We had the good fortune of entering the Louvre during a strike of the museum workers (une grève), who were preventing anyone from paying for an entry ticket in order to put pressure on the museum to meet the demands of the union. At the end of our seven hour stint within the museum (we stopped for a lunch at one of the cafes within), the strike was over, their demands perhaps met or an agreement made to go to the bargaining table, and people were paying to enter once again. Quelle chance, hein?
Our lodging at the Centre International de Paris (BVJ) was quite nice, a step up from the night before at the Hôtel Henri IV, and was located within an old building on a narrow Medieval-esque back street, very near to the Louvre. It had quite modern amenities and an inviting common area with cafe-like seating. Our room, on the fourth floor, opened like many into an open courtyard with a skylight below which was atop the common area. There was a welcome calm in the moderate air of the space, at least until the evening when a huge group of Germans (students perhaps?) arrived and many discovered how fun it would be to shout at a friend from one room to another across the courtyard space. I was reminded of my German friends and their delightful sense of humor, not to mention their impeccable language skills, as this group shouted in German, French and English. I also recalled the experience of my good friend Marcus in a similar hostel in Barcelona where someone had played trumpet into the courtyard air.
It´s a tremendous experience, the blending of cultures - the medium of language, the realization that you know not where another is from until he or she speaks (and perhaps not even then), and of course the good natured coexistence of persons, ambassadors of culture and travellers all on this earth.
We´re tearing through the countryside at well over 150 miles per hour on a TGV train southbound from Paris to Bordeaux, through Tarbes and Dax, and ultimately to Lourdes, which lies at the foot of the mighty Pyrenées. We go seeking repose from the rush of Paris; we venture seeking solace in the hot springs of Cauterets.
Yesterday we tackled the Louvre - er, most of it anyway - which is no small feat, and anyone familiar with the size and scope of this museum will understand and agrree. It´s hard to believe it built as a hunting residence originally (or at least part of it). So many works of art - Renaissance masterpieces, Egyptian and Assyrian artifacts, thousands of canvases and objets d´art each calling for individual attention. It´s enough to wear one out. Here´s the low down: The Mona Lisa, in all its glory, leaves the real one seeming small and blassé. C´est interessant, n´est-ce pas? Venus de Milo and Winged Victory at Samothrace are stunning and majestic sculptures; the Code of Hammurabi is an imposing black stone megalith - befitting the harsh laws it represented; and there were canvasses, by David, Géricault, Véronèse, and Rubens, that leave one gasping at their enormity. Try painting a 20x30 foot canvass in the intense realism of the Renaissance style!
We had the good fortune of entering the Louvre during a strike of the museum workers (une grève), who were preventing anyone from paying for an entry ticket in order to put pressure on the museum to meet the demands of the union. At the end of our seven hour stint within the museum (we stopped for a lunch at one of the cafes within), the strike was over, their demands perhaps met or an agreement made to go to the bargaining table, and people were paying to enter once again. Quelle chance, hein?
Our lodging at the Centre International de Paris (BVJ) was quite nice, a step up from the night before at the Hôtel Henri IV, and was located within an old building on a narrow Medieval-esque back street, very near to the Louvre. It had quite modern amenities and an inviting common area with cafe-like seating. Our room, on the fourth floor, opened like many into an open courtyard with a skylight below which was atop the common area. There was a welcome calm in the moderate air of the space, at least until the evening when a huge group of Germans (students perhaps?) arrived and many discovered how fun it would be to shout at a friend from one room to another across the courtyard space. I was reminded of my German friends and their delightful sense of humor, not to mention their impeccable language skills, as this group shouted in German, French and English. I also recalled the experience of my good friend Marcus in a similar hostel in Barcelona where someone had played trumpet into the courtyard air.
It´s a tremendous experience, the blending of cultures - the medium of language, the realization that you know not where another is from until he or she speaks (and perhaps not even then), and of course the good natured coexistence of persons, ambassadors of culture and travellers all on this earth.
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