October 28th - Museums

This is Place de la Concord which we walked by last evening. This was the site of the guillotine during the Revolution. 2780 French citizens were beheaded during the Revolution and about 1200 lost their heads here. In the 1830's, Charles X (the brother of Louis XVI) became King when the monarchy was restored after Napolean and he had this 3300 year old obelisk of Luxor brought from Ramses II Temple of Amon in Luxor and placed on this spot to honor the executed. It took two years to move the 72 foot 200 ton red granite structure. Ahhh the history.


Today was museum day. We slept in a bit, had a late breakfast and then headed out to the Louvre. Here is the glass pyramid that serves as the new entrance. We just hit the highlights at the Louvre - the Winged Victory of Samothrace, Venus de Milo, and the Mona Lisa. We saw some other things as well along the way but I don't remember what. Afterwards we shopped for trinkets for the kids. There is an endless line of tourist shops on the outside and Ryan was looking for the cheapest Eiffel Towers he could find. We also got Drew a little purse and Trevor a baseball hat. We toyed with the idea of getting silly souvenirs for the rest of the family but it is one of those things where you can buy a scarf that says Paris and then look at the Made in China tag. It seemed silly so we came back empty handed.

Then we made our way to the Centre de George Pompidou - the museum of Modern Art at Ryan's request. We ate a toastee across from the museum and then entered bizarro world. Sorry but I don't have an appreciation for Modern Art. I tried to get Ryan upstairs to see the Picasso works and such but he was more interested in the truly wacky stuff on the lower level - performance art (on video) of a naked woman holding a chicken who had just had its head chopped off until it died. There were also pictures and video of a woman who gets on her hands and knees and drips hot wax out of her mouth onto a dead bird and then cuts the bird out of the wax with a knife. They even had all the little wax-encased birds in a decorative box for you to look at. It was supposed to be about liberation or some BS like that. The least impressive part for me was the little room you could walk in that where they were showing a video of a woman exploring every orifice on her body (and I mean every orifice) with a tiny camera - since when is endoscopy of your nose, ear, esophagus, belly button, vagina, and rectum art?

Remember the American/French couple we met at Le Bureau in Blois? We went to the restaurant that they recommended called Zephyr. It was a good meal. Ryan started with a shrimp salad seasoned with vanilla. I started with a little pot of goat cheese, tomato, and balsamic vinegar that I spread on bread. I got some sort of fish (again) and Ryan got a pork tenderloin dish that was quite good.