So Very Cold

Yesterday morning, our first full day here, we had absolutely delicious croissants from a bakery on Rue Cler before walking over to the Musee D'Orsay. We had decided that we would rather visit this museum than the Louvre because it had more things that we were interested in seeing and was much more manageable. It is situated in an old train station and is absolutely beautiful architecturally. I love that it still has the feel and elements of the station, particularly the arced glass roof that lets in light so wonderfully and the huge ornate clocks. I was so excited that we got to see so many famous impressionist paintings- ones by Monet, Van Gogh, Renoir, Degas, and so many more. I kept walking into a room exclaiming "oh!" and running over to a painting, not being able to believe that we were getting to see so many famous works.


The main floor from a viewing point.


I really love the light and the softness of this one.


Aunt Lynn gave me a card with this painting on it and I've always had it pinned up on my bulletin board because I find it so beautiful so it was really awesome to get to actually see it.


So pretty.


It was really cool to see his brush strokes up close like that.


I had never seen this one before but Chris and I agreed that this was probably our favorite.



One of the giant clocks, this one with a view through it of the city.

After that we decided to eat at a McDonalds for a cheap and easy meal. We pointed directly to a picture of the meal we wanted while attempting to ask for it but the worker, instead of looking at what we were pointing at, simply stared at us. So we asked if he spoke English and his reply was, "Espanol?" so I said yes and tried that way but realized all we really wanted was what we had been pointing at the whole time and got rather frustrated. He then began speaking in English and we realized that he had known English the whole time. It's things like this that make it me like Paris less than I would otherwise. I feel less at ease here because I often feel like we are being scrutinized. I know this is partially just my perception, and we have also talked to some very nice people, but there have been several trying moments. Still, it's certainly beautiful enough here to make up for those times.

Next we walked to the Louvre and had fun running around in the snow and taking pictures of I.M. Pei's pyramids and the absolutely massive building itself. I had not realized that it took up that much space. It certainly was very pretty.


The Louvre in the snow.


Jumping for joy...but with a very straight face.


So cold.


Reflections in the pyramid.

From there we walked to Pont Neuf and also explored some more bridges, even completing Chris's desire to walk down the stairs of one to be directly on the side of the Seine "like in Ratatouille."


It's too bad it's even colder by the Seine because it is so nice to walk along.


Along our walk.

The Notre Dame was our next stop and it was so surreal to be walking and just see it all of a sudden around a corner. It was smaller than I expected and perhaps because I've been to St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York so many times I was less impressed than I thought I would be. Still, it was extremely beautiful. The one really strange thing was the creche, as it was surrounded by little blues light and in front of a computer screen with a sky on it- not quite what one would picture in the Notre Dame.


With blue skies!


We keep being asked to take pictures for people but we don't want to risk doing that so here is our solution.


Prayer candles.


More.


The out of place creche.


A beautiful fresco and stained glass window.


Mom, I thought you'd like this.

Later that night we went back to the Eiffel tower again and this time I actually brought my camera (although I have yet to upload those pictures). Sadly, only the base of our snowman remained. C'est la vie.


I think it's prettier at night.


The remains of our snowman. This is Chris making a sad face but he ended up just looking really French, mustache and all.


Tower and me.

Today we went to Montmartre, which was really wonderful. I will try to write about that tomorrow, when I have uploaded the pictures.