The Louvre - - Paris Day 3

It rounded out our stay in Paris and combined with Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower to form our Parisian Trifecta.  Okay, it’s probably THE Parisian Trifecta, but Troop 264 certainly owned it this trip.

The Louvre is amazing!  We saw it in a way that people shouldn’t see it … on the run, but, we had a few ideas of what we absolutely had to see and little time to do it.  The Mona Lisa was on the top of the list.  As you can imagine, we were not the only ones who wanted to see her, but we elbowed and nudged our way to the front and took what pictures we could.  She’s in protected glass and that case is behind a rope.  She’s gorgeous, and some of us found ourselves wanting to clear the room and have a few moments just to get lost in the portrait. 

That was a common experience, actually.  Words cannot describe the awe and wonder of these works of art, and there was a lot of slow head shaking and much sighing.  They are soooo moving and stir such emotion that there were more than a few tears. 

The Girls played in the museum, too … posing with some of the statues (yep, there are photos) and making all sorts of jokes and one-liners (which we hope to write down and share later).  We had no kind of time, given that we had to eat and do a spot of shopping, as it was our last day in Paris.  The Girls had a wonderful time in a couple souvenir shops and did their part to boost the Parisian economy. 

It needs boosting.  We saw a man sleeping by a post just outside the Louvre, and we had a number of experiences with gypsies and criminal activity.  The plan goes something like this:  A few people pretending to be deaf approach tourists and citizens to ask them to sign the paper on their clipboard.  As the person is signing or reading, others pick the person’s pocket or backpacks.  Our tour director’s colleague had 300 euros stolen as she withdrew the money from an ATM.  Prior to that story, after first encountering the gypsies, the Girls worked well as a team to protect the group as we withdrew money from the ATMs.  They were great, too, at keeping each other safe and keeping an eye on how each other were carrying their bags.  

After the Louvre, at which the Girls posed for a couple of pictures that are earmarked for posting on Facebook, we made our to the train to say good-bye to Paris.  We had twelve people (we adopted two from the other Girl Scout troop we were travelling with) in two sleeping compartments.  People slept with varying degrees of depth and restfulness before arriving in Milan for breakfast … which was a brief stop for a 5 euro snack before boarding the bus for Florence. 

Ah, Florence.  There’s a story or two from there.  Stay tuned.