trip log: relic hunter

Aug 14th: We decided to go to the Louvre since we knew many of the smaller museums would be closed and visiting Notre Dame might be tricky since it was Sunday. We walked near the “steampunk” building (our name for the world’s fair building near to the Louvre) but someone was filming a movie on the bridge (good time to do it when the city is essentially deserted) and we had to go to the next one. We arrived at the pyramid at 9 AM. There was already a very large line-up, but it moved quickly and we had no problems getting through security and buying our tickets. From there it was right to the Sully wing where we started with Near and Middle Eastern relics (Syria, Levant, Bablyon). We saw some cylinder seals and we found the Khorsabad Assyrian temple ruins (one of our main goals). We also saw the Code of Hammurabi. The coloured frescoes from the Ishtar gate were also impressive.

Next we braved the madness of the Egyptian section, which was very small and crowded. We saw the Book of the Dead (it was impossible to take a good photo of it) and many Canopic jars. There were also some very interesting mummified animals and many, many sarcophagi. We ended up in a basement area where some Phoenician relics were on display. This was particuarly interesting because they copied the styles and practices of the cultures they came into contact with (and they met many, being seafarers).

We ended up in the Italian Sculpture Gallery which adjoined the relics, then saw the foundations of the Midieval Louvre. We saw select Roman/Etruscan ruins including some fragments from the temple of Zeus. Lastly we saw some cloth and wood articles from Coptic Egypt. At this time we were hungry and tired (we had been in the Louvre for about 4 hours) and had to stop. So we went out the pyramid and ate some fruit. It was quite cool outside and we were dressed for Montreal summer weather, so we took the metro back to the hotel and had a nap.

We walked to the Eiffel Tower and over a bridge to a posh neighbourhood by the Trocadero. Nothing interesting was open so we took the metro to the Bastille (near the new Opera house) in the 3rd/4th arronsidements. We quite liked the area and found that more things were open. Based on the recommendation of our guidebook, we ended up going to a restaurant called “Le Petit Fer à Cheval” (the horseshoe) which was quite small and populated mostly (but not completely) by Americans. Dan had duck (again) and I had a disappointing veal dish. We shared a bottle of mediocre wine and Dan had another not-so-great espresso. We stopped for really good ice cream on the way back to the metro, and it was delicious. When we returned to the hotel we tried (and failed) to use our phonecard to call home and leave an audioblog.