Frog Horses

We like making sport of this Rick Steves guy; even though his basic message of cross-cultural immersion and communication is admirable, and even though his position on the decriminalization of marijuana is quite reasonable, he’s such an easy target, it’s hard to avoid dissing him and his NPR-listening constituents at every turn. “Europe through the back door,” sure; but for Mimi, Jen, and me, it’s more fun to be invited by the locals through the front, or else crawl through a casement window left open by accident.

Yesterday, we got to do both of those as we mixed arguably the most touristic excursion conceivable with one that was almost devoid of foreign visitors, heading in the morning to the Louvre and then, following that, later in the day and into the night, with a trip to the Hippodrome de Longchamp for the Juddmonte Grand Prix de Paris and fireworks at the track afterwards.

Naturally, the museum visit was both amazing and overwhelming; we saw a number of the greatest hits, including, of course, the Mona Lisa, and the crush of humanity pushing and shoving to get a glimpse of her.

I found myself as impressed with the building as with much of the art, although the scope and size of so many of the 18th century French paintings also blew me away; still, I was perfectly happy to escape to a quiet café close to our hotel in the 5th for a leisurely lunch, far from those madding crowds.

Then, recharged by a nap, it was off to the Bois de Bologne for our equestrian adventure; it took a bit to get used to the French system of gambling, but eventually, I figured it out enough to pick the winner and an exacta in the featured race, much to my satisfaction, if not monetary gain.

Fireworks, choreographed to the Star Wars theme capped the evening; it wasn’t Davinci, but in its own special way, certainly fine art.