Traveling with Ray Owens

Today began with glorious anticipation but the end of the day was a bit of a disaster.  But that later.

On the agenda for this rather rainy day was a split roster.  Jen, Elvin and Ray (JER) were going to the Louvre Museum in the heart of Paris.  Penny, Patrica ANN, and Marilyn (PAM) planned a relaxed morning around the hotel.

The JER group had purchased tickets for the 9:00 AM opening of the doors to the Louvre.  Having been here before, I suggested we should arrive at no later than 8:15 to enter the queue. 

We took an uber and at 8:10 we arrived at the grand palace of French kings. It was the royal residence until 1682 when Louis XIV built the hunting lodge that became the country palace of Versailles.  The entrance to the now Louvre Museum is a huge glass pyramid that was design by the renowned architect I. M. Pei. It is located in the middle of the once royal courtyard with 3 wings of the museum located around it in three sides of a rectangle.

When we arrived, there were roped off queues with ticket times marked.  We joined the 9:00 queue.  There were only about 8 people with more ambition than we had and were ahead of us.  Very soon the masses began to arrive and by 8:45 there were a good 10,000 people in the lines behind us.  I exaggerate a wee bit but not very much. 

One of the curious and funny things that happened was due to the rain that was predicted.   The Weather app said we would be on the edge of the rain shower and may or may not get wet.  It had not been raining up to this point.  But about 8:45 I felt a couple of rain drops. Immediately, and I exaggerate not, it was within a few seconds, several umbrella vendors appeared out of seemingly thin air and began hawking their wares.  They shouted: “umbrella, umbrella, umbrella, ummmmbrellllaahh!” I had one with me so did not partake.

The plan for Elvin and I was to make our way as quickly as possible to the Leonardo da Vinci painting Mona Lisa (1503 to 1506).  I have seen the painting before, but it is a must see for first time visitors to the Louvre.  We made it and the crowd was only a bit faster.  The wait to get to the rope line was only a few seconds. The rope keeps the masses about 25 feet from the painting.  The painting of the lady with the enigmatic smile is much smaller (30 by 21 inches) than we seem to think it should be.  It seems that the comment you hear from everyone in every language is “It is smaller than I had imagined” is the most ubiquitous sound you hear.

At the other end of the room there are no crowds, and very little attention is paid to the massive painting by Paolo Veronese entitled “The Wedding at Cana” (1562).  It is 22 feet by 32 feet in size. Jesus sitting in the center with 130 frolicking figures wondering if the wine coolers might not have been a better choice. It is an amazing painting.  Everywhere you look you see something going on.  There are people tasting the wine and seeming to mutter: Man, this is good, where did it come from!  Cats and dogs wander through the crowd. 

We left and for about two hours we wandered through ancient pre-history, Greek and Roman history and near history French events and painting. We saw Greek Barbie dolls dating from 3000 BCE.  Small clay figures with little detail.  They are older than the pyramids and as old as writing itself. 

We wandered by the Venus de Milo (the goddess of love) around 100 BCE.  It is a statue sans arms found in Melos (a Greek island).  It is one of the best examples of Greek art with well-proportioned features of body and space.

At the far end of this hall and in juxtaposition to Venus stands Ares (or Mars if you are Roman) the god of war.

We also saw the furnishings from Marie-Antoinette from her bedroom and commode.  She was pretty opulent.

We met Jen and the three of us ate lunch in the Louvre cafe. While waiting a bit in the entrance, Elvin saw an old friend from the dairy industry; Elvin had a good time catching up. It is a small world afterall.

We returned to the hotel about 1:00 and met up with the three other ladies.  All but Elvin had tickets to a public rehearsal of the Paris Ballet at 3:00.  Jen was excited to see the two performers go through their paces.  There was the South African resident who was the resident choreographer, his co-choreographer, the piano player and the two dancers.   They were delightful to watch, and they answered questions from the audience of about 500 people where the ballet stage is located.

That evening we wondered around and found a very nice place for dinner.   The waiter was a man with our sense of humor, and it was a fun evening with great food.

Our guide trainee, Paulette, from Paris put us on the trail of a great place for gelato near our hotel.   I was in heaven.

This is when the bodily wastes hit the fan.  Penny got an email from the hotel saying a guest had found her coin purse in the hotel staircase.  She had left that purse in our room safe.  We arrived back at the hotel and a man was at the desk talking how his credit cards from his room safe had been taken and used during the afternoon.

Penny’s coin purse had $155 in it and left in the room safe.  I immediately went to our room and the safe would not unlock with the code I had entered in the morning.  I went back to the desk and the clerk came to the room with a key for the safe and opened it.  In addition to the coin purse, a soft sided jewelry case was gone. Her passport was still there.  Nothing else in the room had been disturbed.

The hotel manager on the phone was not very helpful. He said he could not compensate us for the losses and that we needed to file a police report and give it to the hotel so they could submit that to their insurance.  One of the desk people said he would walk me to the police station and translate if needed.  Police station 1 not too far from the hotel could not take the report at 10:00 at night and we should come back in the morning.  No dice we were leaving France by train in the morning.  Maybe Police station 2 will work.  Another trek and the same story.  Not tonight but he gave me a website to make the report online.

The website worked but would not accept a US cell phone number in the US phone number format it keeps saying incorrect format.

I gave up.  Maybe tomorrow.