Leta got up early (6) and got ready, Michael and Rachel said they both woke up early but Michael went back to sleep. Gabe didn’t get up until 7, thankfully, which is his normal time. Devri got up at 7 and Brian got up at 7:30, then Michael finally got moving around 8. We ate breakfast (baguettes - not French bread here, just bread - chocolate crepes (sold in a pack of 8 from the grocery store and packaged like chips or Hostess snacks), yogurt, and fruit. It was fantastic. We then set out for the Louvre.
Brian originally said it took only 13 minutes to get there, but he must have been smoking something since when Devri navigated that morning, it took 24 minutes. (To be fair to Brian, we did reach the outside of the Louvre that is closest to our apartment in 13 minutes, but Devri navigated to the Louvre Pyramid). It’s not like foot traffic really adds any time. We all booked it over there as fast as we could in the drizzling rain. We made it a few minutes late but still in good time to use our tickets.
Once we were in we headed towards the Mona Lisa first thing. However, we were quickly distracted by the ancient Greek sculptures and spent a lot of time looking at all of them.
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| Venus de Milo |
We looked at the Winged Victory of Somathrace and then headed into the Italian painters, which didn’t interest us quite as much so we went a little faster.  |
| Winged Victory of Somathrace |
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| "A Young Man Being Introduced to the Seven Liberal Arts" by Sandro Botticelli |
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| "Virgin of the Rocks" by Leonardo da Vinci |
We finally made it to the Mona Lisa and were able to get close enough for some photos, despite some rude people cutting in front of Leta and Devri. We then found Liberty Leading the People (not pictured) and took some time to just sit and enjoy not walking for a minute. |
| "The Raft of the Medusa" by Théodore Géricault |
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| "David Playing the Harp for King Saul" by Baron Antoine Jean Gros |
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| Michael admiring the carvings of the Louvre's interior |
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"I'm too sexy for my shirt...so sexy it hurts!"
aka "Dying Slave" by Michelangelo, 1516 |
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| "Apollo Killing Python" aka the Selfie Taking Statue |
We realized that we had missed the French Crown Jewels on our way to see Mona Lisa, so we went through there quickly on our way out of that wing.
Afterwards, people were starving but we still had 2 paintings left to see on our “must see” list (generously generated by ChatGPT) and they were in another wing. So we went and got some sandwiches, croissants, chocolate croissants, and macarons. Brian was still hungry after and decided to get another sandwich, and then we set off again into the new wing.
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| Hammurabi's Code, one of the oldest written laws in the world from Ancient Babylon |
We were momentarily distracted by modern sculptures made in the classical style, but finally made it to the right place to see Vermeer’s The Lacemaker. Devri went to find the Moneychanger and His Wife, a painting she knew of and found several Rembrandt paintings along the way, including his self-portrait. Brian took Gabe to see the Christ Detached from the Cross sculpture that Gabe had seen in the map and wanted to look at all day, and Devri took the rest to look at a fashion show of dresses of some kind. As those four were leaving the Northern European gallery, Rachel said, “What about the Lacemaker?” She hadn’t realized that the painting was right in front of the spot where they all rested while Devri ran off to find the Moneychanger and His wife, so Leta, Michael, and Rachel went back to go see it while Devri headed to the Louvre Couture exhibit. They were all supposed meet up in that exhibit, but Devri never found them, and Michael at one point found a bench and parted company with Leta and Rachel without letting anyone know.
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| Rembrandt, self portrait 1639 |
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"The Money Lender and His Wife" by Quentin Matsys, 1514
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| A Byzantine art inspired dress in the Couture Exhibit |
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| "Christ Detached from the Cross" |
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| Couture Exhibit dresses |
Thankfully, they were all able to find each other by the escalators outside of the gallery, mostly due to WhatsApp. We finally all met up in the basement of the Louvre and took off to our next appointment: a tour at Saint Chapelle.
We walked into the chapel and at first we all thought, “well this is nice, but I thought it would be a little bit more.” Then we walked upstairs into the hall with stained glass throughout. Everyone (at least the adults) could only just say “wow” because there wasn’t much else to describe it.
It was absolutely breathtaking, especially on first sight. We spent some time in there trying to figure out the Bible stories with each stained glass panel, and then finally were able to recognize some after finding a map online. The kids were very done by that point, so we walked out and went on towards Notre Dame.  |
| Panels depicting the story of Noah's Ark on the exterior of St. Chapelle |
Despite trying to get tickets a week in advance, we were unable to get reservations for Notre Dame. Instead, we decided to attend the 1:30pm mass. Unfortunately, we found out later that this mass did not actually exist and after 12:30pm mass (which we had already missed by that point), there was only Vesper’s at 5:15pm. We were going to attend that one, but after arriving at Notre Dame at 3:40, we decided to not wait any longer and just wait in the line thinking it would take an hour or more. Devri and Brian stood in line while Leta sat down with the kids. Surprisingly, the line went extremely fast and we only ended up waiting about 20 minutes to get in. Notre Dame was beautiful and a mass was still going on while attending.
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Before we left for Europe, the kids’ adopted Grammie Bobbie (from Kansas) met with our family to explain some of the Catholic beliefs since she is Catholic. It was great to have Gabe ask so many questions and tie together what she had told us before as we walked around the churches. We even got to see them taking the Eucharist, which I thought was special for us since our church had Stake Conference and we were not able to get the sacrament that day. We enjoyed listening to the choir as we walked around the cathedral. They must have added more lights during the renovation following the 2019 fire, because we remembered it being much dimmer inside when we visited back in 2015.
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| Tour Saint-Jacques Monument |
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Tour Saint-Jacques Monument
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After Notre Dame, everyone was completely wiped from all of the walking. We decided that instead of walking 35 minutes to where our final activity for the day was (a Seine river cruise), we walked only 15 minutes back to our apartment and then took an Uber to the cruise when it was time. We climbed all the way up the stairs, refilled our water bottles and drank more water, used the restroom, and sat for a few minutes before it was time to go back down and catch our ride to the river cruise.
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| Eating bread that we picked up from a market on the way back to our apartment |
The wind was quite brisk by then, especially near the Seine, so we were grateful to discover that our boat for our dinner cruise was completely enclosed. We had a nice table near the side window, and they welcomed us aboard with a glass of champagne, which we declined so they traded it for non-alcoholic fruit drink instead.
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| Michael acting as maître d' for Brian |
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The five us older than twelve got to choose between a chicken dish and a sea bass dish. Rachel, Brian, and Devri got the chicken while Michael and Leta were adventurous and went with the Sea Bass. The food wasn’t anyone’s favorite, but we had a great time on our 90 minute cruise. We loved being able to see the sights along the Seine without having to walk. Leta mentioned that she had always wanted to do a river cruise somewhere.  |
| Pont Alexandre III (Alexander III's Bridge) |
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| Statue of Liberty and Eiffel Tower from the Seine |
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| France's Statue of Liberty |
Dessert was a chocolate Eifflel Tower stuffed with a chocolate mouse at the bottom, and served along some kind of yummy blackberry creamy thing on a cookie. It was really good. Gabe’s meal came with a bigger Eiffel Tower that was stuffed with the blackberry cream that we had. They served them right around the time we were near the Eiffel Tower, so that was pretty fun. After our cruise, we took another Uber back to the apartment,
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| The entrance to our apartment was in between two restaurants |
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| The narrow walkway between the door from the street to the stairs up to our apartment |
climbed the million steps, and got ready for bed. Gabe was quite restless, so Devri laid down with him to read him some Percy Jackson, and ended up falling asleep next to him. Brian got everything else sorted, including writing about our day (up until the dinner cruise), and Devri finished writing it on the airplane to Rome the next day.
Best:
Brian: The Louvre is always amazing, but walking up into Saint Chapelle on the second floor was incredible. I involuntarily said, “wow”, and the guy standing at the top of the stairs laughed and just said that everyone had the exact same expression/reaction when they came up the stairs.
Devri: Sainte Chapelle and getting to see my mom and kids enjoy Paris.
Leta: San Chapelle and the Louvre but it was an amazing day. We got to see the Louvre, Sainte Chapelle,
Michael: The Louvre. All of it.
Rachel: I liked when we got back to the apartment at the end of the night, or the dinner cruise since the dessert was really amazing.
Gabe: seeing the Mona Lisa
Worst:
Brian: While I loved the views of the river cruise and the food was really good, the family behind us was extremely loud and rather inconsiderate, especially the kids as they were really obnoxious and the girl behind me kept running her chair into mine all night. It didn’t help that I developed a headache right as I got there, that was probably the main problem. Maybe the walking as well.
Devri: Feet and back hurting.
Leta: Back and feet hurting from all the walking.
Michael: All the walking.
Rachel: Probably walking.
Gabe: walking—how much my feet hurt
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