As we got home so late last night, we didn't have the energy or coherence to write a decent blog post, so we'll try to make up for that today.
Yesterday was Bastille Day, a French national holiday that we knew very little about. As a result we needed to do a little research in preparation for our evening.
Bastille Day is the French national holiday, celebrated on 14 July each year. In France, it is called Fête Nationale ("National Celebration") in official parlance, or more commonly le quatorze juillet ("14 July"). It commemorates the 1790 Fête de la Fédération, held on the first anniversary of the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789; the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille fortress-prison was seen as a symbol of the uprising of the modern nation, and of the reconciliation of all the French inside the constitutional monarchy which preceded the First Republic, during the French Revolution.
Since we knew we were going to be out late we decided to relax during the day. We started the day with a nice brunch on Rue Mouffetard, a busy little street a short distance from our apartment. After brunch we just kept walking in an attempt to explore more of the city south of where we were staying.
We made a modest dinner in our flat and then headed out to the Eiffel Tower to watch the evening's fireworks. Parc du Champs de Mars was packed, as were joined by thousands upon thousands of Parisians and tourists eagerly waiting for the fireworks to begin.
As soon as it got dark, the fireworks started and lasted for nearly 30 minutes. People cheered, oohed, awed and were entertained as the Eiffel Tower was turned into one giant sparkler. Once the fireworks were over, everyone made their way towards the center of the city where celebrations were happening. It seemed to us that every person in the city was out, cheering and enjoying the late night. 
We decided to walk back, as the line to get onto the metro was longer than we were willing to wait. The map above was the route we took on our walk to the Seine river. It took us over an hour as we were standing still for large portions of time due to the thick crowd. We finished the night by drinking wine on the cobblestone walking path across the river from Notre Dame cathedral.
After a good night's sleep and a quick breakfast, we hopped on the metro and made our way to the Louvre. We were anticipating long lines and were pleasantly surprised to find that we were basically able to stroll right in.
To say that the Louvre is an immense collection of art is a massive understatement. We were blown away by the size and depth of the amount of art on display.We made our way past the obvious attractions (Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo) but found that we spent the majority of our time in the Oriental, Egyptian and sculpture portions of the museum. We also enjoyed seeing Napoleon's apartment and the African exhibit.
It was particularly neat to see Aboriginal art from Canada on display in the North American exhibit. We took pictures of some of our favorite pieces, but you'll have to checkout the slide show to see all of them.
After the several hours wondering the Louvre, and not seeing nearly all of it, we decided to head out to the courtyard to cool our feet. We've walked a lot the past 10 days and are starting feel it in our toes.
We finished our evening with a stop on the Ile Saint Louis for some Berthillion ice cream. It was so good, Andriana is insisting we go back tomorrow.
Turning in early tonight, as we just got back from eating crepes and drinking Heineken in the square outside our flat. We are looking forward to relaxing on our last full day in Paris. We hope to sleep in, do a little shopping and most likely a repeat trip to the Berthillion ice cream shop. Sleep tight friends and family. See you soon.
2 comments:
Great post! About time you stepped it up:)
Looks like you had a fabulous last two days and it has been great that you shared it with us all ... interesting picture ... Adam finding Altona in Paris!
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