Un, deux, trois...
In the course of yesterday afternoon, Brian and I walked up to the Panthéon, visited the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris, watched the ice skaters in front of the H?tel de Ville, saw most of the 14th-16th century French and Dutch paintings at the Louvre, and walked the entire length of the Avenue des Champs Elysées from the Arc de Triomphe back to the Place de la Concorde.
I’ve been inside Notre Dame a few times before, but not since it’s been decorated for Christmas. They’re still constructing the nativity set, but there were plenty of banners and other decorations already in place. We also climbed the towers (think hundreds of steps up narrow medieval spiral staircases) to catch a great view of the city.
In front of the H�tel de Ville, they’ve installed a temporary ice skating rink (bigger than the one last year in Glasgow’s George Square) along the lines of the traditional Rockefeller Center rink. To complete the “winter wonderland” theme they’ve disguised the street lamps as snow-covered trees - complete with real tree bark trunks! (A little odd, I think… but hey, this is France!)
So you’ve probably heard the Louvre is huge. Double the size of what you’re thinking… maybe even triple it! We were there for about three hours and saw less than one whole floor on just one wing. I, personally, was glad to discover the work of Charles Le Brun - the street on which I live is named after him. His works have their own room at the museum, and they definitely need it. Hanging on the walls were a series of four paintings each probably larger in size than the total floor area of my apartment! (something like 24’ × 15’)
The Champs Elysées is decorated for Christmas, and I’m not talking about the red and green traffic lights. Each of the trees lining the grand boulevard is lit up and most of the stores along its length are also adorned for the occasion.
And one of the best things about the day was that none of it cost me a cent! That’s right, architecture students in France have pretty much free access to all of the country’s artistic treasures - museums, churches, châteaus, essentially all the national monuments . Viva la France for making a wise investment in their cultural future!