ADVENTURES IN PARIS | PART TWO

Wednesday - Day No. 7 - Louvre, Pompidou, Le Fregate

Before making the walk across the bridge to the Louvre, we stopped for a little espresso at the corner cafe. It was nice to take a moment in the nearly empty cafe to enjoy a little refreshment before facing the entrance line and the numerous people we were sure to encounter. We took our time walking up to the Louvre. The last time I visited, I had not taken very good photos of the Louvre and the glass pyramids during the day. I desperately wanted to fix that photography problem and thankfully my husband and my son were patient with me as I took photo after photo. My husband did make me aware that the more time spent outside meant that we would not have as much time inside since our late start would cause my son’s nap time to creep up on us quickly. I tried to take to quickly take a few more shots, but it was past ten when we stepped into line. Fortunately, one of the attendants pointed to our stroller and pointed to an empty line that was meant (I think) for families with strollers. That saved us at least twenty minutes and before I knew we were slowly descending in a glass elevator watching the the glass pyramids grow farther and farther away.

I was enamored with the Louvre the first time I had seen the museum when I had visited Paris nearly five years earlier. One of my favorite places in all the world is the sculpture garden. Last time, I found statues that best suited my husband and myself. This time I needed to find a way to include our son. I found our statue near the entrance of the garden. There was a strong bearded man not at all like my husband in appearance, but who seemed to look strong and protective of his family. The woman had long curling hair and seemed relaxed and at ease. The child was in the front, clearly not afraid nor shy was so like my son. The trio suited us and then I looked around to the other side of the statue and found another child located toward the back of the statue and guarded by the figure of the father. I gasped. That was it. The statue of our family in the future, in completion. There was no premonition, but I did sense both a longing and understanding that our future did indeed include another child.

We had been walking around the museum for close to an hour when my son started to get hungry and tired. I would have loved to have explored more, but we need to get our son outside and back home for his nap. I felt fortunate that I was able to view many paintings that I had liked and had wanted to see again. Likewise, I was glad to have seen other parts of the museum that I don’t believe I had visited before. I can’t imagine a visit to Paris without visiting the Louvre.

I really wanted to revisit the works by Delacroix again and the Grande Galerie, but I could not find a way from where we ended our visit with a stroller and I knew that we were on a clock. We returned home to have a meal together then my husband put our son down for his nap. In the meantime, I packed up a book and wandered down to the corner cafe nearby, La Fregate.

We had already walked by the cafe numerous times during our strolls across the Pont Royal bridge to reach the Louvre and the Tuileries Garden. Nothing sounded quite so relaxing as enjoying a glass of French wine with a view of the Seine in the foreground and the Louvre grandly standing beyond the river. I ordered my glass of French red wine ready for a little break and to read. Unfortunately, now I can’t remember how the waiter described the size, but I think he asked if I wanted my glass long or tall or something. I said, “Oui,” and the waiter returned with a glass filled nearly to the brim.

I was seated in a French cafe, sipping French wine and observing the French sights as I sat reading my book for the journey; The Marriage of Opposites. I didn’t realize when I started reading that the book was about the artist Camille Pissarro. If Van Gogh was the personification of an impressionist, then Pissarro was the father of the impressionist movement. Pissarro was of French descent on his mother’s side and also studied for years in Paris. Most of the book tells the story of Pissarro’s mother after her family had migrated to the island of St Thomas (now the US Virgin Islands). It was wonderful to be caught up in the story of an artist who lived and worked in Paris over 100 years ago. Plus, the tropical description of the island was a warm relief to the cool fall weather.

During my solitude, I could hear the conversation of the ladies next to me. They were from the States and they were talking about all the crazy stuff and issues from the election. I sat there amazed that I agreed with just about every point that these ladies made about guns, immigration, education and so much more. After my husband joined me at the cafe, he mentioned that two ladies traveling outside the US probably would see eye-to-eye with me. Once the older women saw my son, they started to talk to us and wanted to know how our travels were going. I explained the ups and downs of our journey so far and then asked them about their trip. One lady said that the reason they were in France was because she wanted to go to Paris and called up her friend (the other lady) and told her, “I’m going to Paris. Do you want to go with me?” The other lady showed a look that portrayed her all-to-willingness to travel to Paris with her friend. As my son was only eighteen months old, I knew I had some time before I could even fathom a trip with a friend to Paris. And yet, I was inspired nonetheless and began to dream about future travels with a friend of my own.

The plan for the afternoon was to visit The Centre Pompidou not only for modern art, but also because they had an event at the museum for kids that day. We arrived at the entrance only to find a long line out front even with it being so late in the day. We promptly got into line, when someone from the museum pulled us out of line and told a a bunch of people to follow us and led us to another entrance. Stroller for the win, again! With our Paris Museum Passes, we were allowed entrance in a matter of a minute. No line and no waiting. Amazing. We immediately directed ourselves to the kid station hoping were weren’t too late. We just missed the time for the kid event. Although the event was supposed to go to 6 pm and we arrived at 5:30 pm we were not allowed to join. I was a little disappointed because I knew that my son wanted a little active time, but we tried our best to keep him in his stroller and look around.

We immediately made our way over to the elevator and were thankful that the modern museum had a modern elevator. I love old buildings, but having to use a stroller changed my perspective a little bit. We reached the top of the museum and somehow found ourselves outside. At this point, I let out an audible gasp. The view from the museum was breathtaking. On one side was a view of the Sacre-Cœur at Montmartre and on the other side was a view of the Eiffel Tower with the sun setting behind it. It was glorious. I had seen some wonderful things already on this trip, but very little compared to the emotion I felt at that moment. I had to keep myself from disappearing into a flood of tears. The view was amazing, inspiring, riveting, beautiful, magical, radiant. I don’t think there is a strong enough word or enough words in the English language to describe that view in person. I was overwhelmed in the best way possible. My husband dragged me away from the lovely view and reminded me that our time was limited with our son at Pompidou.

With my new instruction, I followed my family inside, but I peeked back one last time to capture a glimpse of the skyline not knowing if I would see it again. We visited the museum for maybe half an hour before my son started to get loud. I let him be a little noisy, but I started to feel bad for the other visitors. I tried to talk with him and then reprimanded his behavior, but there wasn’t much I was going to be able to do. Alas, we had to depart much quicker than I wanted to, but it was for the best. The museum pass definitely felt more worth it since it would have been a shame to pay for entry to only be able to spend thirty minutes inside.

All my son wanted to do was run, and he did. I sat down atop a slight slope of the plaza looking toward the museum. He was running back and forth in my view with my husband close behind him. I could tell that my husband was getting tired of chasing his son around the square, but I could have sat there for an hour watching him with a view of Pompidou behind him.

With some reluctance on my part, we returned to the metro station and returned to the Louvre and Tuileries. I like to try different routes so instead of riding the train back to the Tuileries stop, we exited at Louvre-Rivoli. We found ourselves on the eastern side of the Louvre, a side I had been not as familiar with. At this time, it was becoming quite dark. Our time in the Louvre square was not going to be long, but we still indulged our son and let him run around quite a bit. It was quite lovely to see the glass pyramids lit up and to have another view of the grounds before heading home and getting ready for dinner.

After a fine, but incomparable meal the night before, we decided to try the cafe on the corner where I had enjoyed my glass of wine earlier in the day. We were seated around eight in the evening, a good time for dinner outside the US, but the restaurant was not really full. I was relieved that the place wasn’t jam-packed. The waiter was nice enough to tuck our stroller away out of view and seated us promptly. We noticed a large family group with a couple of small kids at a long table near the window and a smaller table where a father and daughter were seated fairly soon after us. There were a few couples or people without kids, but overall the restaurant was fairly mellow.

Both my husband and I were set on trying the Prix Fixe menu. Before our meal, the waiter had not only brought bread to our table but also brought some sort of cracker/cookie for our son. Not wanting him to be full of bread and crackers before the meal, I tried to slowly feed him small bites. However, I did appreciate their gesture of wanting to help out with little ones. I ordered tomato and mozzarella salad with filet de bar poêlé and the mousse au chocolat maison. Everything that I ordered was gluten-free. My husband and I generally like to order different things to try new foods. With that in mind, He ordered the filets de hareng with steak au poivre flambé au cognac and the crème brûlée maison. Everything was absolutely delicious. The waiters were very nice and would talk with my son and he did fairly well even when he became a little more restless. We returned to our little Airbnb across from the Musee d’Orsay with a plan to visit the museum the next day.