Euro trip day 24
I actually slept in until 8.30 this morning although I had
nowhere to put my phone, so it stayed snug inside my jacket. I was stuck on the
top bunk. I think I needed the sleep though. I did feel really good though
getting up. There was free breakfast and really basic although I think it is
just built into the price. Before leaving I wanted to sort things out as to
where I wanted to go like one place I knew was the oldest bookshop in the world
and since I had a museum pass I wanted to visit the Louvre again.
I figured out which station to get out on and I was happy to
have a map so I knew where to go. I jumped out of the station alright and did
not realise I had gotten lost and was not heading towards the Notre Dame. I did
find something I was not looking for and was actually on the museum pass. This
was an awesome building called the Pantheon. It was huge on the outside and
when i entered I found it was actually impressive on the inside. The crypt was
actually interesting although the only problem I did have was that I cant read
French, but it is close enough to English that it is easy to get a general gist
of what it is. I did find the Curies were in the crypt and the guy who invented
Braille too. There were effigies and other things around the building including
a pendulum that gives the accurate time and was part of a scientific thing
around the 1700s to say the earth revolved around the sun.
After that I wandered up the road still going the wrong way
and found another place that had my interest. It was a park called Luxumbourg,
which has a palace of the same name. This place is supposed to THE place to go
for the local Parisians so I had read. It was a nice sunny day and at the time
I had thought I lost my map which had the streets on it. I had a spare map in
my bag and it was later I had found the original map in my jeans pocket. It was
strange I had checked them and was not there. After the park, I wandered in
another direction and found I was passing some places that were familiar. One
of the museums that I had passed earlier made me wonder what it exactly was, so
I had a quick look at Musee de Cluny – musee national du Moyen age. It was
interesting although it was basically a ruined church; it did not interest me
that much at all so I walked off. When I looked and found I was now going in
the right direction. On my way I stopped to have lunch and wandered through
alleys that were all restaurants. No one tried pulling me in or annoying me to
eat there.
I appeared out on the street within sight of the Notre Dame
and was not sure how I could look for a shop that was so close to the footpath
so I crossed the road on the river side and looked for what I wanted. I found
the Shakespeare and company store and it did stick out like a sore thumb. I
crossed the road and entered just to have a look. I decided that I liked the
book about the life of Charles De Gaulle. I asked about H.P Lovecraft and was
shown that they had some. I couldn’t see them before and I bought myself some
books for my trip home. I ended up wandering some more through the Latin
Quarter and found comic book stores. I do want to go back just to see if they
are in French or English.
The wandering around left me wanting to spend the rest of my
day at the Louvre, so I caught a train to the location. I ended up spending a
long time in the museum and it was not until they closed that I finally left. I
did not have a map or anything and just wandered around to see where I would
end up. I found plenty of interesting things. Sure I passed Mona Lisa and the
only thing I thought others would be interested in was the security in place
around her. I did find sculptures and even rooms set out as Napoleon III rooms
although I do not know if the furniture was actually from there or was elsewhere.
There were also rooms of objects that were from several kinds that were around.
I was during this time getting sore and tired after a long day on my feet. I
was actually enjoying myself that I was wandering around the galleries as last
time I was there I was basically running as I was trying to get everything into
my trip that I could. This time I was around there for at least 3 or more hours.
When the museum closed it was actually getting dark. I did
like how the staff kicked you out. The lobby was not light up and so everyone
was leaving in semi darkness. I wandered to where I was going to catch the
train back to the hostel and I did not feel like walking towards the Eiffel
Tower with it being all light up. I had a shower and then went looking for
food. I ordered Steak Tartare and it looked like mince and it was a little
coldish. I was not too fussy as it was food and goes down the same way like
everything else.
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