,
Traipsing
along pedestrian-friendly rue de Rivoli, en route to the Louvre, the shopaholic
in me was compelled to place my pink sneakered foot into each and every tacky
and touristy souvenir shop that littered the promenade near the Carrousel du
Louvre. No matter that this was my 5th
or 8th sojourn to the City of Lights, the glint of the shiny mass-produced
trinkets never failed to mesmerize my inner scavenger, leaving me several Euros
poorer, my satchel brimming with Eiffel Tower key chains, “I Love Paris” T-shirts, Paris-logoed caps, bags, pens and
postcards. So what if I wouldn’t be
caught dead sporting a T-shirt or baseball cap and if all of my friends, family
and colleagues had already received an abundance of these exact same souvenirs
from my previous Parisian excursions?
Rue de Rivoli
runs parallel to the Louvre, roughly an hour’s walk from Notre Dame Cathedral,
depending upon how quickly or slowly one meanders along the promenade and stops
to linger in the cafes, ice-cream parlours and designer shops along the way. Pawning everything from high-end fashion to
low-end reproductions of the Mona Lisa, this lively and bustling passageway is
a must-see tourist attraction all on its own.
My 12 year
old niece was growing increasingly impatient with my acquisitive shopping
habits, annoyed (as only a pre-teenager can be) that I might end up squandering
the remainder of the day sequestered in the shops, leaving minimal time in
which to amble along the corridors of the Louvre. It was already approaching mid afternoon and
the kid was anxious to finally come face to face with the Mona Lisa.
My niece was
a voracious reader, eagerly devouring biographies of long-dead royals,
Marie-Antoinette being her current favourite.
A couple of months shy of her 13th birthday, her reading
material of choice was the same as mine, historical non-fiction. Disneyland Paris would have to wait.
I’m embarrassed
to admit, but neither of my pink sneakers had traversed the hallways of this magnificent
former 12th century medieval fortress. I had been too busy scurrying outside the
grounds of the Louvre, snapping digital memories, having devoted the majority of
my leisure time to languishing in cafes, sipping vino, fully immersing myself
in Parisian cafe society. Oh… and
rummaging for knickknacks and one of a kind treasures.
Avoiding the
long line-ups to gain access to the Louvre, we instead chose to use the lesser
known “Carrousel du Louvre” entrance, where a multitude of shops lay hidden
below in the ground level of one of the winged sections of this world-famous
museum. In addition to harbouring
somewhat pricey shops, a food court, water closets and payphones, the bottom
portion of the inverted glass pyramid is also located in this mammoth
edifice. It also boasts an impressive
exhibition hall, which is home to the annual “Paris Photo” exhibit. One could easily be content to wander around
the “Carrousel du Louvre”, pose in front of the inverted pyramid, take in the
exhibition of the day and shop till you drop. And, we hadn’t even reached any
of the four main wings, all of which house well over 35,000 priceless
masterpieces!
The entrance cost to both the permanent and
temporary museum collections was 15 Euros for adults, and since I had squandered
away most of the day scrounging for trinkets, leaving barely any time in which
to absorb and appreciate the history and architecture of this colossal gallery,
I succeeded in convincing the kid that we would return the following day.
Admission is free to those under 18 years of
age and also on the first Sunday of each month.
Since we were here mid-month, we
would not be able to take advantage of that awesome deal, unless of course, we
extended our sojourn an extra couple of weeks!
Hmmm. That might not go over so
well at my place of employment or my dwindling bank account! And the chances of trying to pass myself off
as a pink-sneakered 18 year old are pretty much slim to none.
Meandering
along the pricey shops of the Carrousel, I spotted a watch with the likeness of
Mona Lisa imprinted on the background. All
for what seemed to be the fairly reasonable price of 17 Euros. Reaching into my
limited edition bronze Carolina Herrera satchel, I came close to plunking down
my Euros but my “wise beyond her years” responsible niece informed me that “Auntie Nora doesn’t need it”. Smart kid,
as I happened to stumble across the exact same watch for the bargain basement
price of 7 Euros, while later browsing in the tacky souvenir shops that lined
rue de Rivoli.
Having now
saved 10 Euros, I thought it only fitting to treat the kid to some
well-deserved crème glace, promising her that “demain” (tomorrow) we would devote a full 12 hours to discovering
the “magnifique” wonders that are
housed in this colossal warehouse of knowledge.
Yikes!! My pink-sneakered feet had better get a good
night’s rest, as tomorrow they will be sprinting around the corridors of the
Louvre, awed by the talent and creativity of the artistic visionaries whose
masterpieces continue to inspire generation after generation.
Come
rummage for “one of a kind” mass produced shiny trinkets on rue Rivoli…come
appreciate artistic genius and the Louvre with us…
Note - I'm having technical difficulties uploading the remainder of my photos to this blog post and was only successful in uploading one picture. Since I always post new blogs on Wednesdays, I wanted to be consistent with my weekly posting. I'm going to have to contact the Kid for technical advice on how to solve my photo uploading issue. In the meantime, stay tuned, I hope to have the Louvre pictures added to this post soon.Update - I've successfully uploaded my pictures to this blog. After a bit of research on the web, I found out that Blogger has been having some photo uploading issues and one of the recommendations was to download Goggle Chrome, which is what I just did and voila!, it worked like a charm! And all along, I thought that it was me and my lack of computer technical ability. Yikes!! I really did think that my laptop was on the fritz and needed major repairs but it turned out that it was just a glitch. This blogging thing really is teaching me a lot. In the meantime, enjoy the post and the pictures.
Next post – The Kid and Mona Lisa
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