Jetlag Rating: F+

ALBUM: Paris – Day Two

I do not often wake naturally before 9 a.m. I also do not often wake naturally after 9 a.m., but we don’t need to go there right now. On day two, I was surprised to wake up feeling well-rested at 8:30, while at home it was 12:30 in the morning. This may have been partly due to the fact that I was excited to go to the Louvre because duh, of course I was; it’s THE LOUVRE. 

If you’ve never heard of the Louvre, you’re dead to me, but here is the blurb on it from our guide: The Louvre Museum is a world-renowned cultural institution and a must-visit for any art enthusiast. Housed in a magnificent palace, the museum is not only a showcase of artistic treasures but also a historical monument. Home to over 35,000 works of art spanning from ancient civilizations to the 19th century, the Louvre offers a captivating journey through the evolution of human creativity. Visitors can marvel at iconic masterpieces like the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo, creating an immersive experience that captures the essence of art and history.

I’m only going to post a few highlight pictures here — the links at the top and bottom of this page, also found on the photos tab, have many more photos, which can be saved or shared. The Louvre is massive; the galleries span over 15 acres and, if stretched out, would go on for eight miles. We had a crash course tour of some of the most famous works, sprinting from gallery to gallery to catch what we could in the limited amount of time we had to spend.

This is Diana, goddess of the hunt. Shortly after seeing her in person, I read that on September 2nd of this year, an expedition to the RMS Titanic found a thought to be lost two foot tall bronze replica of this statue, which was featured atop the fireplace mantel in the First Class lounge.

Sculpted between 160 and 110BC. One of the most famous works of Ancient Greek sculpture in the world.

The room was super crowded for this one. Not sure why, it wasn’t even that big of a paining, and her eyes followed you very creepily.

Niké was found on the island of Samothrace, north of the Aegean Sea. Another masterpiece of Greek sculpture, it shows the goddess of Victory on a ship’s bow. If you look closely at her abdomen, the sculptor was able to show her garment soaked with water, almost appearing transparent as it clings to her.

If you look at the head of the Goddess of Liberty, you’ll find this is where we get our mascot for the Paris Olympics — the Phrygian cap!

There are many more photos in the album, and I could go on for pages about each work of art, but I hope this at least inspires you to take a look at the Virtual Tours of the Louvre available online. As soon as we made it out, we were loaded onto buses and taken to Marché des Enfants-Rouges, the oldest covered market in Paris. It was founded in 1628, and we were there to have lunch at Les enfants du marché, a high-concept seafood and natural wines restaurant at the back of the market. We were given a tasting menu with all kinds of things to share or eat on our own.

I opted for the terrine of the day, which was a sweet and savory tomato-based cold soup. We ordered the snails in Burgundy style, which were hot and salty and briny, though Tim refused to try any. Instead, he did a respectable job of almost finishing a bowl of tender mussels in tangy Gorgonzola. He played it safe with the dry-aged sirloin, while I may have played it too brave with the squid and black pudding. I did enjoy the squid, and I really liked the peppery flavor of the black pudding, but once I remembered it was blood sausage, I couldn’t get the idea of eating congealed blood out of my head and sort of spoiled it for myself. Oops.

At this point, we were exhausted. We didn’t make it to cheese or dessert; we called an Uber and escaped back to the hotel for a late afternoon nap. We awoke just in time for athletics.

Athletics is an event perfect for those with short, wandering attention spans. It rarely gets boring because multiple events are usually happening concurrently. This can be exciting but also distracting, as while I was watching the long jump, I missed Arshad Nadeem make a record-breaking javelin throw, which luckily Tim was recording.

We were seated front and center to witness the incredible Tara Davis-Woodhall win gold in the Women’s Long Jump Final. Her joy was contagious and her victory was probably my favorite out of anything we saw.

I caught Letsile Tebogo win the Men’s 200m final. And the US dominated in Hurdles, with Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Anna Cockrell taking the 400m gold and silver, respectively, and Grant Holloway and Daniel Robert’s doing the same in the Men’s 100m.

We made it back to the hotel late, once again decimated the buffet, had a nightcap, and went upstairs to crash. Already I was falling in love with Paris, and full of pride getting to be here watching so many great Americans achieve their dreams.

ALBUM: Paris – Day Two