So after seeing the Opera we walked till we got to the Louvre (the Opera, Louvre & Eiffel Tower are all pretty near each other)! It continued drizzling after lunch T_T
In front of the glass pyramid, which is the newest addition to the Louvre!
(Most of the Louvre consists of the traditional architecture in the background)
If you read the Da Vinci Code you might remember that the author, Dan Brown, claimed that the pyramid is made up of 666 panes of glass & how this was a minor clue/trivia contributing to his story.
Anyway I read in The Straits Times' Life! that the Louvre staff went to count the panes & no, it's not 666 lol. Not even close. But then again they could be lying to cover up the story *conspiracy*
Entrance!
You go through a bag scanner before going down to the main lobby where you can purchase tickets.
Red nose & rain droplets on my coat & camera lens.
The bag checkers made a few jokes about my bunny ears lol T_T
Anyway we managed to get free tickets because we were reading the instructions on pricing & this nice couple came up to us saying that they were done for the day & we could have their tickets!
Actually the Louvre admission is ridiculously lax. They don't seem to care much.
The Louvre by the way is MASSIVE. If you really cared about Art you'd surely take a few days to properly cover all the artwork. The rest of the people just want to see the Mona Lisa because it's famous haha (me included). Anyway we kind of just roamed around for a bit looking at other exhibits.
Visited one section which was about I-don't-know-which French king/emperor's living quarters.
Really can't recall which one it was :X Anyway it was really grandiose!
Do you notice the Chinese vases? We noticed quite a few artifacts that seem quite clearly to be from/inspired by other parts of the world (China & Egypt). Too bad no explanation was provided!
Yah IKR, I am super thick-skinned hahaha.
Egyptian no?
Check out this dude! Stalked him & took photos because he looks like he should be in a movie...
Like.. The Matrix. Or The Da Vinci Code haha.
Kinda creepy with his super long coat no?
After that we gave up roaming around (the Louvre is just way too massive) & headed towards the Mona Lisa! There are quite a lot of signs leading towards it & a lot of people going there too.
The ceilings are really gorgeous :')
Super long hallways with doors on the sides leading to more rooms & hallways.
And... the Mona Lisa!
In French she is named La Joconde :)
The whole room was super crowded (the rest of the Louvre is fairly quiet)!
Everyone's waiting to get a look at the world's most famous painting.
... Which is separated from the crowd by a rope & a thick glass casing hahaha.
People are always surprised by how small the Mona Lisa is (compared to all the hype surrounding her).
Still pretty cool to see it in real life though!
Mandatory touristy photos with the painting:
Room full of people
I remember the descriptions provided the analysis/meanings of the paintings but I kind of forgot what they were :X Some of them seemed a stretch as per usual though.
The pyramid looks really pretty at night! :)
Juxtaposition of old & new
Headed to the Eiffel Tower after that!
Back in 2010 I had already gone to the Eiffel Tower in the summer (blogpost
HERE) & had gone all the way to the top (there are 2 tiers). Queuing took maybe 1-2 hours (you queue once to get to the first tier then again to get to the second) so I wasn't that keen to queue again IN THE COLD, so thankfully Caroline & Sarah weren't keen on it either hahaha. But it was much less crowded in the winter anyway.
The Eiffel Tower is pretty at night too!
The the lights came on!
Unfortunately my camera lens was still covered in annoying rain droplets.
Walked further back to capture The Eiffel Tower in full!
Hahahaha not sure what this group of people were doing but it was cute!
And some selfies of Sarah & I while waiting for Caroline because she was using the wrong set of lens for her DSLR & she couldn't get the whole tower in a photo. Hahaha she had walked SO far back it was crazy. Yay for my easy-peasy camera haha.
By the way this was probably only late afternoon or at most early evening!
During the winter months the sun was setting around 4 or 5pm every day T_T
In summer the sun sets at like, 9pm wtf.
Walked around nearby & found a nice restaurant for dinner!
Parma ham & rocket salad!
Sarah trying the actual French foie gras, which comes as a paté.
In Singapore I always see it served pan-fried, which is nice as well, but it's not at all what we eat in France. Don't think I've ever seen in served pan-fried in France actually.
My crème brûlée! It's really yummy but ridiculously diabetes-inducingly sweet.
Sarah's dessert but I forgot what it's called. I think it's cheese, called fromage blanc (literally white cheese) in French. It tastes like unsweetened/plain yoghurt really; it doesn't taste like cheese. Very nice!
Seeing these photos are making me hungry...
Hope you guys have a good start to the week!
Tata ~
