Paris Bucket Strategy

We actually only had six days to complete our Paris bucket list and it was going to be a real effort on my part since I was already fatigued from our previous two weeks of continuous travel and fitful sleep. But we both had this bucket list of things we wanted to see and do in Paris. The usual things that tourists go to that included the Louvre, d' Orsay and the de l'Orangerie museums, Notre Dame, and the Eiffel Tower of course. The tour bus had given us a look at the lines for these items and I could see I was going to be challenging at best and I needed a strategy for parsing out the energy I had for completing our list that included a rest day in between touring days someplace.

Another helpful thing that Kay worked out was to obtain advance reserved tickets for the Eiffel Tower on Saturday that would get us in a shorter line and she also conjured up a four day museum pass that would put us in the short lines for our museums. Smart and very handy from my viewpoint. We knocked off Notre Dame and d' Orsay on Monday.

It's hard to explain the lines in terms of length other than greater than the Disney-esque versions we in the US experience, but perhaps they could be placed on a football field with the turns on the opposing goal posts for example.  The Louvre was interesting to see with end reach nearly 100 yards toward the road dumping the masses down the great pyramid in the center of the courtyard.  This entrance was to get into the security gate where personal items are checked as you pass through metal dection.  (all museum sites do this) Then the queues start for tickets with huddled masses of people and crying children in the great foyer below milling for entrance to one of the three buildings.  Denon was the most popular-- well, because of the Mona Lisa of course. 

One only has to pass throught the Denon gate queue with your ticket or pass and follow the crowd there.  Flights of stairs carry the viewers to their most desired level then take a right into a large room where Mona hangs just above head level covered by a huge plate of glass.  She is also protected by about 600+ human beings who nearly fill the room and are all holding their cameras up in the air photographing this postage stamp from the most rear row of viewers to the verz front.  The museum signs say very clearly no flash but you know humans forget to read in these situations, so I am sure that some of the people in front came up with sunburns from the multiple flashes.  Mona sat quietly behind her protective glass- hopefully flash reducing glass.  I made my entrance and exit pretty quick but still found Denon way too crowded and promptly moved to the Richeleau building and the quiet safety of the Flemish and Dutch painters.  They are my favorite anyway. 

I only say these things because I put these things on my bucket list since they are things that I thought should be seen.  I am not sure why they are on this kind of list since I know what the Mona Lisa looks like as well as many Rembrants and others from studying copies in books and such, where I can really see them.  But, we humans often put them there with the millions of other people who line up in these queues because of some kind of mistique, curiosity or just a bucket list for some city.  It all made me a bit cynical to say the least...  that is until we went to the Eiffel Tower.

The Eiffel is something worth seeing including the two football fields of people in queues waiting to by tickets on the ground and the queues to go up to the second floor and the queues to go up to the top.  Having that reservation helped reduce the line to about 50 people rather than 1500. Once on top we took some photos, had some champaign, marveled at the city and the incoming rain, then back to the queues to get back down.  No restaurant visit needed and we were both happy with the visit in spite of the weather. 

The bucket list is completed for these hot Parisian items but I am now wiser about putting such things on a bucket list that really may not merit being there just because millions of other people put a place or a piece of art on their list.  This was supposedly the slower season since most Parisians are out of town on holiday.  I can not imagine the crush of people when it is busy season but I do know to expect all of those other people to be there with me and to make the experience bring my thought process into question regardless of the season.  Perhaps I should have done this when I was younger or would it have made a difference?  Or... maybe the bucket list plan was just too ambitious for reality?  I am still scratching my head about it.  And, the Eiffel Tower still belongs on a bucket list.