Day 11 - Thursday

Another museum today, the Orsay Museum. Rob and I both liked this one more than the Louvre, which may have been because it is a more manageable size, art pieces more selective and understandable (for the most part).

The Orsay Museum is housed in an old train station, hence the clock and round roof. Rob enjoyed this piece because it is made up of so many small brush strokes of varied color.
I liked this picture because the flowers were painted in 3-d and it made me want to reach out and touch seemingly velvet petals.

Minus the facial hair and suit-coat, this man looks similar to Rob when he is studying for the GMAT test.

Second time performing ballet in my life (1st was a one semester class in high school). I think I need a tutu to look professional.
This diorama is made up completely of paper layers.
Main hallway in Orsay Museum
This statue is of Joan of Arc, but it vaguely familiar to me and I realized later that it looks a lot like a statue from Deseret Book.

This painting was about 10 feet wide and six feet high. When standing in front of it you felt like the caravan was alive and moving towards you. It was more like a photograph than a painting, amazing.
This room may have been the inspiration for the elves's' room in Lord of the Rings. Great craftsmanship.
Rob informed me that the church has used this picture in some of it's publications. This is Peter and John running to Christ sepulchre after they heard He had risen.

This large (~50'x30') painting caught our attention. We thought that it was an odd style of painting and wondered what the story was behind this Neanderthal group. Looking at the title, "Cain", we realized that this was Cain as in Cain and Able from the bible, after wandering in the dessert for many years with his family. The painter and recently seen a skull of a Neanderthal man and used it has his inspiration to create this painting.

It was cold enough in Paris that we even got to see a polar bear :)

Hmm... modern "art"? :(

Crazy Van Gogh's portrait of himself. He lived in he countryside with a friend for a while, but the friend left after Van Gogh tried to stab him. The townspeople convinced him that he needed to enter a mental institution. Many of his paintings are based on his time at the institution and during his years of depression. Van Gogh later committed suicide. I didn't like any of his artwork before, and especially don't now.

After the Orsay Museum Rob and I spent a lot of time just walking around the streets of Paris. Here is picture of the Obelisk of Luxor (transported from Egypt).

After nightfall we decided to check out the Sacre Coer (Sacred Heart) Cathedral which stand on a hill overlooking Paris. One of my friends recommended that we visit it because it was one of her favorites, but it was dark and cloudy so the view wasn't that amazing. Also, inside they were selling rosary beads and other "souvenirs" which made me feel a bit uncomfortable since it is a church.

New Year's Eve
After heading back to the hotel to rest our feet awhile, we headed back to the Eiffel Tower to celebrate for New Year's Eve. They had a light show going on one side of the tower. But besides that it wasn't that amazing as there were no fireworks or anything, in fact we weren't even sure for a minute if the midnight had come yet. Oh well.

We were worried a little because of all the pickpockets out in the crowds. You would see groups of young men all dressed in black with black scarves over their mouths who would occasionally shout out to one another across the metro station. Right before midnight one of these young men, with a large empty bag, stood right in front of us looking completely out of place. Rob and looked at one another and mentioned that as soon as midnight hit, when people were distracted with kissing one another and popping champagne bottles he would disappear and go to work. When the time came, we looked where he had been and he was gone. It's a good think Rob put my purse around his neck and under his coat. Thanks Rob!

Returning to the hotel on the metro was interesting as well. We were part of the last group to enter one of the stations before they shut it down for the rest of the evening. Because there was no room for us in the direction we wanted to head we hopped on a train in the opposite direction and then switched directions at the end of the line. The train ended up looking like this:

At one of the stops two young men got on the train that were obviously drunk. One had recently been in a fight because he had a cut on his forehead. They prevented the doors from closing four times and so Rob ended up grabbing the back of his jacket and pulling him in so that the doors could close and the metro train go. The young men ended up attacking another young man about three feet in front of us. Rob wanted to jump in and stop it, but another man told Rob, "You don't speak French, don't get involved". The young men ended up being thrown off the train by other occupants but not before several people were hit by the end of a belt. Sounds scary? It was. I was shaken up for the rest of the evening. This was our only "adventure" of the whole trip fortunately. Stupid drunk people.

Bonne Annee! Happy New Year's!