*Thursday, April 07, 2005*
paris: jour trois
we headed off to the louvre, the oh-so-very famous art museum. we took LOADS of photos, both outside and inside. =) hua, likun and i took this really nice "skirt" photo. haha..very cool. we also posed for some very crazy photos..i especially like the one where sato was posing in a smilar pose as the statue (with the scarf), with the rest of us pointing at him. HAHAHA. i don't have that photo with me though - i'll have to get it from likun.
the museum was really amazing...espeically certain areas, like the "gold room" where flash photography was "prohibited". we also got the chance to see the mona lisa, which is actually really tiny. i thought the painting was bigger than what it was. but it was interesting to look at the painting and apply dan brown's theories to it. they actually make sense, but i think i read somewhere that it's not actually true. oooh, controversy. fun fun. we missed maddona on the rocks/virgin on the rocks the first time round (we didn't realize that it was this particular painting - the french name was so different!). and dan brown's theories came into play again - and yet again, made sense. i must say, if it all isn't true, he is one amazing storyteller.
i especially liked a few paintings there - one of which was this painting which contained many smaller paintings in it. wow. there was also this incredibly detailed still life oil which was to die for. we didn't actually manage to cover the entire museum though..it was huge. plus, it's not as interesting when you don't know much about the paintings - i'm not a huge renassaince fan. but if it was georgia o'keefe, or georges seurat, or van gogh....that would be a different story. speaking of which, i was thrilled to see georgia o'keefe mentioned in the da vinci code. =)
i also had another "interesting" experience in the louvre. and a lesson learnt. =)
after that, we walked along rue de rivoli in search of souvenirs...but didn't really buy many, apart from postcards and these fantastic art prints! love those prints, especially the pencil sketches...mmmm nice.
ash, likun and i went for dinner at this restaurant near our hotel (hua and sato ate there the first night, and said it was really good). and it was. escargots, beef bourguinon and dessert. the strawberries...and chocolate brownie. oh my god. the waiter was super nice, taking the time to explain everything to us. it doesn't help when the only french food terms you know are poulet, bouef, jambon, fromage...and a few others. =) the only thing we could do was to figure out what meat was being used. hahaha. and although we were really full, we still bought pastries on the way back to our hotel - it was a 24 hour pastry shop. we also took photos of the happening red light district. *grins*
oh, and did i mention that the view from our hotel room was amazing? we could see part of sacre coeur. =)
[22:16]
