Museums in Paris

Oh, wow, what could possibly be worse than breaking my camera? Sigh. (Well… probably losing it…?) Here’s the last picture I took with it, before I bought my new one:
I straight-up cracked the screen on it… if you’re curious how I managed that, I basically put the camera in my back pocket… and sat on it. I’ve done it hundreds of times, I just did it the wrong way this time. :( (Also, I’ve got an odd nose… Where did I get that?)

You’re lucky I didn’t lose it some other way, because I think this batch of photos is a particularly interesting one. I’m kind of jealous of you that you get to be experiencing them for the first time now!

First, I went to visit the local science museum. There was a cool ‘genes’ exhibit, one about sound, and a huge one about light. All for the cool price of only €3:

Yea, I know, I always wear the same sweater… sorry. Good promo for Old Navy, though. 

They had a bunch of cool demonstrations of all sorts of optical illusions and trickeries. The coolest thing they had was a ‘corriolis room’, a windowless chamber that spins around just fast enough so that everything you do is pushed to the side, but not strong enough for you to feel the room rotating. (If you’re curious, I felt like I was drunk while walking around in there.)

I took way too many good pictures of the Louvre and its exhibits to put on here, so I’ll only give you a few of my favourites before moving on to the awesomeness that is the rest of Paris. I got to see a crowd of people in front of the Monna Lisa:

And here’s the Venus de Milo:

My  favourite thing about the Louvre is actually surrounding the art. I mean, the paintings and sculptures are pretty cool, but remember - this used to be a palace. Imagine walking around in your jammies in here:

Another really cool thing are these (ancient?) stairs that have actually been somewhat flattened by the huge amount of people who’ve walked on them over the centuries:

A few cool Egyptian items:
 
Dude… that thing on the right is a straight-up, genuine, badass mummy. There’s some famous dead guy wrapped up in bandages in that thing…

Yesterday, I went on a whim to see the Chateau Versailles. I spent an hour walking around getting lost in the garden out back:

There, I ran into a pair of swans who were looking for trouble:

I keep stumbling on this stunning architecture:

Even the modern buildings are really cool:

I went for a drink with Julien’s cousin, Ariel:

The next night I went to a jazz bar:

I felt a little homesick on this street:

I couldn’t help but take pictures of the Asian tourists:
 If you look closely, you’ll see… they’re actually making peace signs!!!

Frenchisms

-People have an odd naming system here:

-Double-decker trains!!!

-There are free toilets outdoors everywhere in Paris:

-And pay-as-you-go ones indoors (this one’s in the train station):
Seriously, though, 1 whole Euro?  

-Speaking of trains, the metro cars and RER trains (so, like, overground tram-like train thingies that there’s no equivalent of in Montreal) are all horribly graffitied:

-My favourite thing about Paris? People selling roasted chestnuts on the streets:

-People take forever to get through ticket lines. This might only apply to lines in museums, I’m not quite sure. It’s so bad, I keep thinking there’s some kind of complicated procedure at the front of the line, but I always manage to get through in 30 seconds.

-Employees aren’t very nice, here. I’ll explicitly say “can I please have some help?” and they’ll look at me like I’m an idiot. I was somewhere I wasn’t supposed to be (the front door was open, but apparently they closed at 5, and it was 7) and instead of politely letting me know, they practically gave me the boot. This is world’s away from Ireland, where you felt like you were practically family with people you had just met minutes ago.

Travel update: I’m on a high speed train towards Amsterdam, right now. It looks like I’ll be spending three nights there and two nights somewhere in Belgium. Also, for a physicist , it’s pretty exhilarating to see what 300 km/h actually feels like. Here, have a look:

Sorry for the glare, but the sun is setting beside me.