Our taxi driver said it best, shaking his head as we drove to the airport at the end of our three day sprint through Paris: “You need a month here to really see Paris, at least a month!”

In planning our big Europe trip, we debated coming to Paris at all, knowing we wouldn’t have much time to allot to the city. But in the end, we decided to try to see as much as we could in such a short time. And try we did.

We stayed in a tiny hotel in the Latin Quarter within walking distance of great little cafes and many famous historical sites. We arrived late on Sunday night and found a small little place for our first Paris meal and were reminded how little French we possess. No worries though. Here and every other cafe we visited, the waiters were extremely friendly and helped us along in English, patiently teaching us the right French words to use. I had heard horror stories of rude Parisians who refused to help you if you couldn’t communicate at least a little in French, but our experience was very positive even with our dismal French skills. A smile goes a long way here. We had an Irish Coffee at a small cafe near our hotel that I swear was almost as good as those made by our friend David Prouse around Thanksgiving time. When we shared this compliment with the waiter, we were ushered inside to share this with the bartender whose delight in learning we had liked his drinks was genuine.

We walked to the Louvre our first morning to wait in a long line to buy a museum pass. We found an underground ticket office where the line was only 45 minutes compared to the three or four hour wait outside by the the museum entrance.

Once inside, we thought we’d start in the Italian section to see the Mona Lisa when our energy level was at its highest. I think that same decision was made by most of the other guests. It was very crowded. Seriously crowded. In all my life I’ve never ever experienced such a crowd. It wasn’t just the sheer number of people packed together; we’d experienced crowds like this in Rome and Florence too. But this crowd had a physical edge to it. I found myself jostled and shoved and shouldered almost constantly. Definitely no personal space boundaries here!

This mass of humanity slowly edged its way through corridors and immense rooms filled with delightful Italian art and sculpture, though it was hard to appreciate anything with the zombie-like hordes stampeding over you. No one bit me, thankfully.

We finally reached the great room with DaVinci’s masterpiece hung on the far wall, behind glass and a 15 foot barricade. Against the barricade stood hundreds of people, most holding cell phones or cameras in the air over their head to capture some element of the painting. We did our best to wiggle through the crowd, but the best we could do was get about 15 feet from the barricade. Too many people pushing and shoving to get more than a glimpse. Connor somehow wedged himself to the front, but on the far side of the exhibit. Still, he got to see her. After ten minutes of jostling with no forward momentum, we gave up and decided to move on to other less crowded sections of the museum. I wonder what Leonardo would think about this. And what of the less famous but still incredible artists whose work is completely ignored on the way to see the masterpiece? Kind of disheartening to me…. We licked our wounds as we left the Louvre and vowed to come back again in the dead of winter. At night.

We had a much better experience at the Musée de l’Orangerie, a small museum nestled in Tulieries Garden. Outside you can take in water lilies growing in a pond. Within the museum you can take whole rooms of Monet’s water lily paintings. Picasso, Renoir, Matisse and Cezanne paintings are there too without the accompanying zombies. Much better.

From there we avoided the big museums but still got to see Many beautiful parts of the city. Notre Dame, the Bastille monument, and the Eiffel Tour lit up in its glory from Trocadero Park. That is quite a breathtaking view.

We had a nice glimpse of Paris. Maybe we’ll be back someday for a decent visit. In winter!

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