The Louvre

 Hello again

 WOW. Let me say that again. WOW! Our second day in Paris and I’m going to say something very silly here. I have been completely overwhelmed twice today. The first time was this morning. We got up early, had breakfast, and headed off to the Louvre. For any of you who haven’t been to the Louvre, picture the biggest Museum you have ever been to and multiply it by ten. Then double that! We got inside and grabbed a copy of the museum guide and I immediately saw that we would be seeing the original Statue of Venus de Milo,

A Rembrandt self-portrait,

some Michelangelo sculptures,

a complete collection of Botticelli paintings,

Oh and in case I forget to mention it……The Mona Lisa,

you know the most famous painting in the world. The woman with the enigmatic smile. The one that makes you wonder how they get the caramel in the Caramilk bar??

We were 1 hour into our visit and I started panicking. One hour and we had seen maybe 1 percent of the Museum!! I began to think that we could spend our entire three weeks at the Louvre and if we only stopped for one meal a day we might be able to cover 75% of the paintings and exhibits!

What was I to do. I started going faster and faster… Joani didn’t seem to be keeping up…She wanted to look at things for more than a second per piece. I might have to leave her behind. I started thinking about running over women and children… they were moving so slow and there was so much to see!!! Sacrifices obviously had to be made. Maybe I could speak to someone at the museum about letting me stay nights. Then I started hearing a voice.. A voice I recognized.. The voice of reason. Oh yes, there’s my calm rational wife, Joani again.

 “Slow down Garry. We will prioritize the most important things we want to see, and on our second trip back to Paris, 2 weeks from now we will try to get some time to get back again for another half day.”

  God I love her. I would have really regretted running over the women and children!!

 We left after seeing maybe 15% of the Museum. Man it is large, and went to a restaurant to have a late lunch. Even if I get back for another visit in our second time through Paris, I know I won’t ever see more than 30% of the entire museum but I’m totally serious when I say that I would have felt very guilty if any women and children were injured in my visit and I was joking when I said I could leave Joani behind. (I think!)

After Lunch, we went to Notre Dame Cathedral and I was completely overwhelmed for a second time. I had read about this before we left home but it never really struck me until I saw it. Paris like a small town we saw in Italy has another town underneath it. I believe the name was Lutece and it was built by the Romans and later renamed Paris. The ruins of a complete town are under the Notre Dame Cathedral.

Again I was completely blown away. The concept of archaeology really hits you when you are wandering around the ruins of a civilization completely buried under a city as large as Paris.

 I know this email is long so I will wrap it up . We spent the evening walking through other areas but that is for another time. I’ve bored you enough for now. 

 Adieu