Nowadays, the room in which the Mona Lisa is located is absolute bedlam. Crowds of people 20 or 30 people deep are all pushing for a look at this — surprisingly small — masterpiece.

We managed to work our way to the front and I snapped a couple of photos, as well as a couple of Justine looking at the painting. Kids are, for some reason, allowed closer than the rest of us. I figured I may as well capture their good fortune.

There are other paintings in this room, but they receive little to no attention. It’s almost sad that such a small painting receives so much attention when there are so many other amazing ones nearby.

Day Six
Paris
August 13 2007 22:34

This morning we left for the Leuvre and after a brief stop at the slowest Starbucks ever, we entered the museum under the large pyramid which was such a point of contention.

The Leuvre is big. Really big. If you wanted to see everything properly you’d need an extremely long day or even two. We saw a huge amount of art from Rome, Greece, Etruscian art, French and more. Of course, we made sure we saw the Venus de Milo and the Monsa Lisa. The crowds around the Mona Lisa were crazy, with people 20 or more deep all shoving for a glimpse. You can’t even get more than around five metres away from the thing, and there are over a dozen guards!

Fighting the crowds I snapped a few photos and stole a look also. As we couldn’t get out the guards let us exit closer to the painting on the condition I didn’t take any photos. Of course I did (from the hip) anyway.

We toured the Louvre for about five hours (Napoleon’s apartment was also quite special) before walking to the Notre Dame.

In dire need of food, we ate a small cafe in Notre Dame’s shadow before going inside. The line to get in is long but fast and the interior is huge. To be honest, the cathedral is a lot nicer inside than out to me. A service started as we were looking around and we watched for a few minutes. As Catholic services go on for ever we left with the intention of climbing the 400+ stairs but had missed the last entrance by around five minutes.

So, we headed towards the smaller of the two islands along the Seine and wandered amongst the numerous small alleys there. The famous Berthillon Ice Cream was closed (they close for August, go figure) but plenty of places nearby sell it. We bought a cone each — it was alright but I’ve had better — and wandered back to the Metro station near the Notre Dame and caught the train back to our hotel.

We grabbed some food from a nearby supermarket and did some Internet-related stuff there (our accommodation is booked in Amsterdam but our train there isn’t!).

Even though my French is appaling, it seems that the locals are far more friendly if I attempt French rather than simply use English from the outset. One guy at a train station gave me a Paris Metro Map; it’s like a “Participation Model” — thanks for trying!