Veni, Vidi, Leonardo da Vici.
I’m very glad to say that the spooky date today was not some sort of bad omen for my ability to figure out public transportation in a foreign country.
On this sunny and 70 degree day in Paris, we conquered the Louvre, the Galeries Lafayette, and crêpes.
I started the morning bright and early at… 10 am. The jet lag was real folks. I would’ve slept until noon if it weren’t for the fact that I had my first full day in Paris ahead of me.
When I cracked open the windows to let in some fresh air this morning, I realized that the sound of a city is something I’m no longer used to. Even now as I type away with the windows open, the bustle of the street below makes me feel somewhat crowded. I shouldn’t be too surprised— for the last two years I’ve been living in the peace and quiet of the northwoods, where the only sounds are my breathing, and the three (yes, three) different clocks ticking away in the living room. Unfortunately they don’t all tick on the same rhythm. Tick, tick, tick. Tock, tock, tock.
I think some city noise will be good for me.
I threw on my brand new (and maybe too expensive) Aigle skirt, and Calli and I headed for the metro. We got to the Louvre with surprising ease. Big plus, Paris metro isn’t quite as stinky as the New York one!
The Louvre was absolutely incredible. We spent five minutes standing around and staring at the open pavilion with the big glass pyramid before we actually got in line.
I’m embarrassed to admit I didn’t know that the “big glass pyramid” is actually the entrance to the damn place. You get in line, go through security, and then an escalator takes you down to main lobby where you can get maps and sign up for tours.
I just knew that there was the Louvre, and it had the Mona Lisa and the big pyramid, and maybe that pyramid had a name, and I’m sure it had a story, and I was on board with that— I would learn about it when I got here, that’s the whole point of museums.
Well, I did learn about it. It’s the coolest front door in existence.
We walked through exhibits of Renaissance objects (amazing), Napoleon’s apartments (holy crap), Greek & Italian sculptures (how do they even do that), and then decided to take a small coffee break before the big one: madame Mona herself.
Calli and I had spotted a Starbuck’s in the main lobby and figured that would be good enough; we didn’t want to linger—we just needed the caffeine. As we tried to find our way back to the lobby, we came across Cafe Richelieu-Angelina.
I cannot believe I almost went to Starbucks.
The cafe had an amazing view of the pavilion with it’s coolest-front-door-in-existence, and the room where we sat was such a beautiful deep blue with chalky white furniture. Calli had an iced coffee and a delicious tomato basil pasta dish. I decided to hell with it, and I had a glass of white wine from Saumur and their eggs Benedict with avocado in place of ham.
The hollandaise at Cafe Richelieu-Angelina is the one and only hollandaise I’ve had to date that tastes as good as at The Brick House Cafe. (And that’s not me kissing up because I work there from time to time. That’s me saying that—as a hollandaise connoisseur—this shit was pretty damn good.)
Thoroughly stuffed and needing to walk off our lunch, we made our way back to where we left off with the Renaissance objects and moved on to the paintings.
And of course, we saw the Mona Lisa.
The room was completely crowded, and there was a roped-off section in the middle for people who wanted to wait in line and get an unobstructed view of the painting. I was fine with standing at a distance and enjoying the fact that I was seeing the most famous painting in the world with my own eyes. I didn’t even take a photo—thousands exist. I just wanted to look at it for myself. (But I took a quick video for the snap)
As we continued, I discovered my favorite painting in the whole museum: L’Aurore et Céphale by Pierre Narcisse Guérin. I just enjoy the colors of the night sky, the way the star light looks like a blanket that the woman is lifting, and how everyone’s skin is a beautiful, unblemished, milky-white in that stereotypical Renaissance-muse way. (I wonder if there’s a connection between muse and the French word for museum, musée…)
After strolling through more sculptures, we decided to actually grab a coffee at Cafe Mollien before we left. We had lattes on the balcony across from Cafe Richelieu-Angelina. Yes, there are multiple restaurants in this museum. And a Starbucks. I tried to be friendly so I asked the barista “ça va?”, how’re you? When he responded with ‘Fine, and you?’ for some reason I panicked and went straight to “I’ll take a latte please!”
I don’t even do that at home???… Whatever. I’ll get better (and more polite), I promise.
After the Louvre came the Galeries Lafayette, the most beautiful and bougie shopping mall to ever exist.
A picture stolen from the internet, because I only took a video…
I didn’t feel dressed up enough to stroll the aisles of the designer outlets like Prada, Balenciaga, Louis Vuitton, and any other brand that makes my bank account laugh at me. Nevertheless I walked on like the window-shopping queen that I am. I actually found a cute sundress that I could afford and I was proud of myself for communicating with the sales clerks entirely in French—even when I need to ask for the next size up.
The problem with French fashion is that I like it too much. I saw one thing— a cropped sequin blouse with spaghetti straps— that I looked at and thought “nope, not for me”, and that was the ONLY THING IN THE WHOLE GALLERY I DIDN’T LIKE.
After strolling through every store on every floor, we wiped our tears and left the gallery. Calli googled restaurants nearby and on a whim we chose Midi12, a crêperie.
Calli was perfectly content to start immediately with dessert but I was able to convince her to have dinner first. She chose the Burrata galette; sautéed zucchini, Burrata, Italian Speck ham, Tomatoes, Pesto wrapped in a crêpe. I chose the Saumon Fumé Galette; smoked salmon, spinach, goat cheese, a poached egg, and dill. After our dinner and our wine, we had some real dessert. Calli enjoyed a caramel apple crêpe and I kept it classic with a brown butter one.
We found our way home and now here I sit, with a full stomach and maybe a touch of culture.
Jusqu’à la prochaine tasse de café!
-Ken
