Paris: The Second Part

Bonjour! Today I am continuing on with my recollection of the Paris portion of my trip I took with my dad in late May/early June.

If you missed the South Africa Safari posts, go here:

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4
• Part 5
• Part 6

If you missed yesterday’s first Paris post, go here:

• Paris: The First Part

Day 3 in Paris was exploring shopping areas day! There was a high chance of rain and Dad and I wanted to stay dry, if possible, so we looked up what to do and discovered the covered shopping streets of Paris. So, Dad and I walked all over the Right Bank of Paris going from one covered street to another. They date from the early 1800’s and where the popular places to shop before big malls happened. They are beautiful (and gave me major Japan vibes). Take a look:

For it being “shopping day”, Dad and I hardly bought anything at all. We actually ended up buying more gifts and souvenirs on our last day in Paris. However, I did find a wonderful stationary store down one of these covered passages, and picked up some neat gifts for my friend Sarah @WindsorWrites.

Dad and I eventually ended up at Galeries Lafayette Haussmann, a famous shopping mall (was in fact one of the big malls that phased out the covered passageways as “the place to shop”) that has a gorgeous stained glass dome. They even have an observation deck you can go out on to get a closer look. Here is the dome:

The next day, Dad and I walked around a bunch and then went to the Louvre museum in the afternoon. Saw this neat thing on the way there:

We made reservations for the Louvre, but there wasn’t much of a line anyway so we breezed right in.

Their special exhibition was all about the art and culture during the Hittite Empire (1600 BC) which is actually something I have been interested in ever since I read the manga Red River by Chie Shinohara which takes place in that empire so I definitely had to check it out. They had really neat statuary and imagery of animals and humans melded together.

We also managed to see the Mona Lisa, though it was a bit nuts trying to get close.

I eventually got close enough to get a decent shot then noped out of that crowd.

The best thing about the Louvre, though, was the ceilings.

And Napoleon’s apartments were pretty intense:

Anyway, that’s it for this post. I will wrap up Paris in my next post, which I will (hopefully) post tomorrow.  Au revior!