Detailed Photo Review of Paris and London Trip in June 2019

[deladane]

8 hours ago, HAM said:

It's a long way from the Celebrity board, but I've found you !! I'm enjoying your review very much, and I'm glad I had a Yankee's shirt sighting.

 

Spoiler Alert:  You will see A LOT more Yankees shirts as the review goes on!  

[deladane]

12 minutes ago, BullyLvr said:

Hi!  I’ve been following along for several days and love your posts and pictures. We’re heading to London (for the first time) next July for a couple days before our Norwegian Fiords cruise and I’m looking forward to reading about and seeing pics of your London days.  

 

I promise I will get to our days in London before your vacation next July!!!  Thanks for your patience 😎

[Morgans]

13 hours ago, Cotswold Eagle said:

 

I am afraid this is not correct. Neuf has two meanings, nine and new (distinctly different to nouveau - neuf has more of a  sense of brand new or very new). 

 

As I said in my post, in this context it clearly means ‘New Bridge’. For whatever reason you seem to want to disbelieve or contradict things I contribute to this forum, but a glance at any published source on the Pont Neuf might help you accept this...

 

In any case, neuf as nine, the cardinal number, would be incorrect for Ninth Bridge - it would be Neuvième Pont. 

 

Exactement!

 

15 hours ago, deladane said:

Bouillon Chartier is located just around the corner from our hotel.  They are highly rated on Trip Advisor and known for having good French cuisine at affordable prices.  It shouldn’t surprise me that when we approached the restaurant, there was a HUGE line outside and the hostess said it would be at least a 30 minute wait to be seated.  With the time it took to get back to this side of the city from the Arc de Triomphe, it was already 8:30pm so we did not want to wait another 30 minutes (likely longer, judging from the length of the line!) just to be seated, let along waiting to be served some food. 

 

Instead, we went a few stores down to Café H.

 

It is a shame you missed Chartier - quite an experience. Cafe H is no comparison.

[Still Dreaming]

Hi Dana,

 

 Following your wonderful review!   

[Host Bonjour]

On 7/29/2019 at 11:14 AM, deladane said:

 

Thanks for your feedback!  What I did to fix the font was use size 16 (not bold) and I guess the slightly bigger letters made it easier for people to read.  I didn't realize the Hosts had the ability to edit posts so long after they were posted (you learn something new every day!), but if you could put it back to the 'dark violet' color and in size 16, that would be amazing!  If not, no worries and the black is fine.  I just like having the review content in purple so it stands out when people are scrolling through and want to quickly skip over the comments and replies 🙂 

 

99.9% of the time, we do not ever edit posts for any reason, there's almost never any need to edit, nor could we devote much time to edits. The benefit to the community was obvious here so I thought, "yes, let's!"

 

I've gone ahead and returned your first three large posts with photos to violet and switched them to 16 point size; they appear nice and legible. There are a few small responses in black font that I did not convert to violet but I don't think anyone who is following along will have any trouble reading them!

 

I'm going to pin the thread up on the France and Britain board so that folks will see it upon opening the boards, hopefully that will make it easier for more folks to see it and it won't drop down further as newer posts arrive onto the respective boards. 

 

Thanks again for your terrific posts, glad you've had such a wonderful holiday 🙂

 

 

 

[deladane]

10 hours ago, Morgans said:

 

Exactement!

 

 

It is a shame you missed Chartier - quite an experience. Cafe H is no comparison.

 

I would love to try Chartier some day, but not on a night that's already off to a late start!  Just another thing to put in the "we'll do it next time" pile!

[deladane]

5 hours ago, Still Dreaming said:

Hi Dana,

 

 Following your wonderful review!   

 

Thanks for reading!

[deladane]

1 hour ago, Host Bonjour said:

 

99.9% of the time, we do not ever edit posts for any reason, there's almost never any need to edit, nor could we devote much time to edits. The benefit to the community was obvious here so I thought, "yes, let's!"

 

I've gone ahead and returned your first three large posts with photos to violet and switched them to 16 point size; they appear nice and legible. There are a few small responses in black font that I did not convert to violet but I don't think anyone who is following along will have any trouble reading them!

 

I'm going to pin the thread up on the France and Britain board so that folks will see it upon opening the boards, hopefully that will make it easier for more folks to see it and it won't drop down further as newer posts arrive onto the respective boards. 

 

Thanks again for your terrific posts, glad you've had such a wonderful holiday 🙂

 

 

 

 

Thank you so much for your help Colleen!  I hope pinning the thread will help more people to read it and benefit from my research! 🙂 

[Lindagop]

Hello and a big THANK YOU, what a lovely , entertaining and well written account of your trip. I spent my day off yesterday with my two favourite 4 legged kids and your report -  on the sofa. Please continue soon. Greetings. (This means so much as my 2 fur kids named Paris and Will have accompanied my DH and I to Paris on three holidays. This  doubled the enjoyment of your posts, bringing back treasured memories).

[deladane]

1 hour ago, Lindagop said:

Hello and a big THANK YOU, what a lovely , entertaining and well written account of your trip. I spent my day off yesterday with my two favourite 4 legged kids and your report -  on the sofa. Please continue soon. Greetings. (This means so much as my 2 fur kids named Paris and Will have accompanied my DH and I to Paris on three holidays. This  doubled the enjoyment of your posts, bringing back treasured memories).

 

Thank you so much for your kind words! 🐶🐕

[deladane]

 

Monday, June 24, 2019 ~ Louvre, Palais Royal and Gardens, Tuileries Garden, Musee de l’Orangerie, Trocadero Park

 

Touristy as it sounds, one of my #1 top requests when booking this trip to Paris was that we had to visit the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa.  I knew the painting was small, the room gets extremely crowded, and most people say the entire experience is disappointing, but I simply could not spend a week in Paris without saying hello to Mona!  Knowing how long the lines usually get at the Louvre, we planned to arrive at least 30 minutes before the doors opened to be one of the first to enter, and hoped that would be sufficient to give us a good view of the famous painting.  We planned to spend about two hours in the museum, then find somewhere to buy a sandwich for lunch that we could eat in Tuileries Garden.  The rest of the day was kind of up in the air.  The original plan was to go to Arc de Triomphe today, but since we did that yesterday, we now had the whole afternoon and evening to do whatever felt right in the moment.  DH was shocked that I had a gap in our agenda like that!  It was so unlike me! Haha

 

This was the first morning that I realized how hot it was in our hotel room.  You may have heard news coverage about the massive heat wave plaguing Europe in late June and early July?  Well lucky us, that was exactly when we were in Paris.  The high temperatures the week prior to our arrival were in the 70’s, but while we were there, temperatures soared to over 90 degrees nearly every day, and it was brutal!  We had been sleeping with the fan on us at night, but there was no screen on the window so we didn’t want to leave it opened at night in case bugs (or birds??) might fly in.  We were on the 5^th story of the building and our room faced into an enclosed courtyard between the backs of other buildings, so I wasn’t as concerned about safety, but that thought did cross my mind as well.  This morning, when I got out of the shower, it was so hot that all I wanted to do was get back into the shower again!  Crazy enough, when we left the hotel in search of breakfast, it was much cooler outside than it had been in our room.  I guess the old saying that heat rises has some truth behind it since we were on the top floor of the hotel!

 

Since our hotel was about a one mile walk due north of the Louvre, we decided to walk there instead of taking public transit.  Along the way, we found some interesting sites to explore and kept our eyes open for a place to buy breakfast. 

 

Passage des Panorama is similar to Passage Jouffroy where our hotel is located, just on the other side of Grands Boulevards.  We decided to walk through there to take some photos before all the stores opened and shoppers got in our way.

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting…

Edited July 30, 2019 by deladane

[deladane]

A block or two from where we exited the passage, we found a small bakery with the most delicious smell wafting from the door.  Sometimes breakfast finds you before you find it!  I wish I took photos here because DH said this was his favorite croissants of the trip.  We took our croissants to go and ate them as we continued our stroll towards the Louvre.  When we got to Jardin du Palais Royal, we took a detour off the street so we could walk through the park instead.  Being only 8:15am, we were the only ones there!

 

 

 

Next, we walked through the courtyard at the Palais Royal.  The building dates back to the 17^th century, but the courtyard is filled with white and black striped columns installed by French artist Daniel Buren in 1985.  This space is usually packed with tourists taking clever photos, so it was great to arrive so early and beat the crowds.

 

 

 

 

[deladane]

Crossing over the Rue de Rivoli, we entered the grounds of the Louvre through Passage Richelieu.  Even though we already saw the Louvre on our walking tour on Saturday, there is still something magical about seeing those iconic pyramids and knowing you are in for a morning of magnificent art!

 

 

 

 

My original plan was to enter the museum through the Carrousel entrance down near the mini-Arc de Triomphe.  The main entrance through the pyramid is said to be more popular and have longer lines than the so-called “secret entrance” through the underground Carrousel mall.  When we arrived at the pyramid, there were only about 20 people in the line for museum pass holders, so we just decided to stay here.  I read some comments online that said the Carrousel entrance isn’t so secret anymore and can sometimes have LONGER lines than the pyramid.  We didn’t want to schlep all the way down there to find out we should have just stayed where we were, so we got on line and prepared for the 30 minute wait for the museum to open.  While we had some time to kill, I left DH on line while I walked around the perimeter of the pyramid to take some more photos.  Might as well take advantage of being here so early before the plaza gets crowded!

 

The other entrance we originally planned to use is way down there by the Arc

 

 

This is the Denon Wing, where Mona Lisa lives!

 

[deladane]

There were 4 couples taking their wedding photos here.  This bride’s gown was gorgeous, but they must have been soooo hot!  It was already in the 80’s, even this early in the morning!

 

 

 

I liked how the clouds made it look like the sun was a fireball falling onto the pyramid

 

 

At 9am, we saw them let people enter the museum from the other line, but our line didn’t budge.  Apparently those people had purchased timed entry tickets guaranteeing them entrance within a specific 30 minute window, so they had priority over us lowly museum pass holders.  Over the next 15 minutes, several hundred people from that line got to enter the museum while we just stood there waiting.  I do not know how things worked at the Carrousel entrance, but it is possible that even though we were so close to the front of the line up here, we would have entered sooner down there if there was no line for timed entry tickets.  Finally, at 9:15am, they allowed our line to enter the museum.  It wasn’t a huge deal to wait 15 minutes, but there was no information conveyed to us that this is what would happen so basically we stood there for 15 minutes not knowing what was happening and when we would be allowed to enter.  The not knowing part of it made time move sooo slowly, so it would have been nice if someone made an announcement that we’d be let in at 9:15am.  Anyway, it was finally our turn to enter the pyramid and go through security!

 

 

One of the reasons I wanted to enter through this entrance was to be under the glass of the pyramid!  It is such a cool structure, even if it doesn’t have the historical significance of the rest of the Louvre haha

 

[pd7277]

5 hours ago, deladane said:

 

Thank you so much for your help Colleen!  I hope pinning the thread will help more people to read it and benefit from my research! 🙂 

And you didn't think anyone would read this.😉

[deladane]

23 minutes ago, pd7277 said:

And you didn't think anyone would read this.😉

 

HAHAHA I know, right?? 

[Walt fan]

So enjoying and cannot wait to see your take on the Mona Lisa! Your photos are incredible.  I cannot believe they were taken with your phone.

[crusingnut]

Your review is awesome! It's making my research for our trip a lot easier. Thanks for taking time to post, I know it's talking a lot of your time .

[deladane]

11 hours ago, Walt fan said:

So enjoying and cannot wait to see your take on the Mona Lisa! Your photos are incredible.  I cannot believe they were taken with your phone.

 

Mona is coming up next!

[deladane]

31 minutes ago, crusingnut said:

Your review is awesome! It's making my research for our trip a lot easier. Thanks for taking time to post, I know it's talking a lot of your time .

 

Thank you!  Let me know if you have any questions 🙂

[deladane]

After getting into the museum, we entered a large lobby area.  The one mistake we made was forgetting to stop by the information desk to pick up a paper map.  Once you are inside the wings of the museum, there is no where to get one and the museum is so huge that you really can get lost without a map.  I wasn’t thinking about maps though… I had one mission in mind and nothing was going to stop me until I achieved it!  After we got to the bottom of the escalators under the pyramid, I looked for the signs labeling the 3 main wings of the museum: Richelieu, Sully, and Denon.  The Mona Lisa is in the Denon Wing, so we needed to go there first.  We walked across the lobby towards the sign for the Denon Wing, went up the escalator, and waited in a short line to show our museum passes.  It all went so quickly that I am not 100% positive, but I don’t think we needed to show our tickets until this point, so it may be possible to enter the lobby under the pyramid without having tickets to enter the museum.  Or maybe we did show our passes at the initial security line when we first entered and I just don’t remember doing it? 

 

Anyway, after that ticket check, we walked through a beautiful hallway with patterned marble floors, stone arches overhead, and lined with dozens of statues.  We were surrounded on all sides by beauty and it was incredible!

 

 

 

At the end of that hallway is a staircase leading up to the Winged Victory of Samothrace, a Greek marble sculpture of Nike made in 200 BC.  This sculpture is framed so perfectly at the top of the staircase, but we only snapped a quick photo and didn’t take the time now to look at it closely.  We would need to pass by this same staircase to exit the Denon wing so we planned to spend more time here then.

 

 

As we walked through the Denon Wing, there were signs posted along the way leading towards “La Joconde” with a picture of the Mona Lisa, so we knew we were going the right way.  I couldn’t help but look at the beautiful things around me as I walked briskly through the halls.  Even the ceilings were intricate and ornate!

 

 

We continued through this grand gallery with parquet wood floors and lined with hundreds of famous paintings until we reached the room housing the Mona Lisa.

 

 

[deladane]

We found the room!  These are the signs we saw throughout the museum pointing us in the right direction.

 

 

When we entered the room, there were about 50 people already there, but that is nothing compared to the hundreds of people who would cram in there later in the day! 

 

 

It took 3 minutes for us to get to the front of the pack, and there she was, just a few feet away!

 

 

As famous as this painting is, it is really quite small at just 30” tall by 21” wide.  She certainly deserves her own wall, but she is completely dwarfed by the tall ceilings and grand room in which she is housed.  She is encased in bulletproof glass, making it hard to take a photo due to the glare, but we could still try to watch her eyes follow us as we walked around her.

 

 

We’re seeing the Mona Lisa!  #bucketlist

 

 

There is a lot of construction going on in this section of the museum, so the huge painting that usually hangs on the wall opposite the Mona Lisa was moved somewhere else.  In fact, a few weeks after we visited, Mona Lisa was moved too!  She is temporarily on display in a different gallery somewhere else in the museum, so I’m glad we were at least able to see her in her regular home. 

[deladane]

Now that we completed our #1 mission, we could take our time and stroll through the rest of the museum at a leisurely pace.  Before the trip, I looked up a few Top 10 lists of the most significant pieces of art in the museum as a way to stay focused.  The Louvre is the biggest museum in the world with nearly 15 acres of gallery space!  Our tour guide on Saturday mentioned a statistic that if you spend 30 seconds looking at every piece of art in the Louvre, you would need 3 months to see everything if you spent every minute of every day touring the museum.  Our Eurostar tickets were nonrefundable, so we only had 3 days remaining in Paris, not 3 months!  That meant we could only really focus on a select list of pieces, and we would need to skip most of the museum if we had any chance at getting out of here in a reasonable amount of time.

 

Our next stop was to see the “red room” which was created by Napoleon III to display the large format paintings of famous French painters from the late 1700’s and early 1800’s.  This is where they filmed the opening scene from the Da Vinci Code movie when the museum curator runs through the gallery and is killed, with his corpse shown on the shiny parquet floor.  The dark red walls in this room contrast with the gold frames to make the larger-than-life-sized paintings really pop.

 

 

We stopped to admire The Raft of the Medusa:

 

 

and Liberty Leading the People:

 

 

At the end of the hallway is a grand staircase leading down to the ground level.  Always remember to look up when walking through buildings in Europe!  This was the ceiling above that staircase:

 

[minnie mommie]

Deladane, FABULOUS report I have been once to Paris and your report makes me want to go back. 

[deladane]

1 hour ago, minnie mommie said:

Deladane, FABULOUS report I have been once to Paris and your report makes me want to go back. 

 

Thank you so much!