July 9th

Monday, July 9th
Paris, France

This morning Julia and I returned to the Louvre, and by the time we left after a second Louvre session we still had not seen close to everything. Today we looked at a lot of statues, and saw Venus de Milo (Aphrodite), the head dating from before 2,000 B.C., Mary Magdalene, and my favorite, Cupid and Psyche. Cupid and Psyche is now my favorite work of art. I spent about ten minutes admiring the masterful sculpting of that piece, and could have spent longer. It captures true love in such a meaningful way.

We met Geiler outside the Louvre and went to grab some lunch. We went back to the place where Julia and I paid an outrageous amount of money for water and where I got just a handful of fries for 4E50 (who knows why?). While we were eating, it started to sprinkle. We needed some shelter, and diverted our course to the Centre Goerges Pompidou, a museum of modern art. DO NOT GO HERE!! Just as we got there, it started to pour, and we were forced to spend a decent amount of time inside.

We left and went by the Notre Dame, so that Geiler could check it out. After this, we went to Sainte Chapelle, a chapel with the most beautiful set of stained glass I have ever seen. After walking up the spiral stairs into the top chapel, the viewer comes face to face with meters and meters of stained glass, telling the stories of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. It is just about the neatest thing ever, and there wasn't even a lot of sun coming through the windows.

At night, we went back to the Eiffel Tower so that Geiler could see it sparkle. We set on the grass in front of it for awhile, and then called it a night a bit after midnight so that we could get Julia home and still make it back to our hostels via the metro (Geiler's hostel was one stop away from my flat).