Ok, admittedly I am a freakish form of human nature. If you doubt this take the recent trip to Paris. It is not enough that I have an automated audiotour of places like Versailles, Notre Dame and the Louvre but in order to be absolutely and definitively sure that I have squeezed the essence, juice and the pulp out of the experience I also have to sign up for engish language tours in all of these places as well - all pause while Logan rolls his eyes.............There! But I have never regretted the negligible cost or this decision in any way. Even when I was in danger of being hung by my headset wires and a security guard took an hour to untangle the hopeless mess.
Take Versailles as an example; This large palace was a labour of love for Louis Quatorze (IV) and was completely stripped during the French revolution with most things outright destroyed by the mobs or sold by the revolutionary government to feed the populace. Over time there have been (rarely) donations of lost furniture but mainly the french government has been trying to buy back pieces. They have gotten a bit lucky at times like the time the Rothschild family owed 23 million american dollars in taxes (inheritance tax - what is that about????) - instead of forking over the cash they gave, in lieu, a piece of furniture that was bought during the revolution that was and original piece of furniture in Versailles - I have a pic of course. ONE piece of furniture _ the French government enacted this bill to give historically releveant pieces in lieu o taxes to try and recoup the treasures. How do I know this fascinating tidbit? through the english tour - it was not on the audio tour because the english tour takes you into the roped off areas of Versailles. In the chapel we saw masses of people standing behind velvet ropes while we stood on a beautiful marble floor in the nave in front of the alter wrecking their pristine pics all the while smugly ignoring them.
How many of your have seen the famous painting of Napoleon crowning Josephone (don't worry I have a pic)? Well I know many things about that painting I would not know if I did not have an english guide.
Probably the best illustration of this point comes in my discussion of Musee d'Orsay - where you goto see the impressionists and work by Rodin. Logan, incidentally liked this visit the best. Most people I spoke to said I must go and see it and it is a marvel.........that you will have to see for yourself because we both forgot our cameras - Bad Omen 1. Then we arrived at the audiotour desk to find they were all signed out - Bad Omen 2. And we were 1 hour too late for the english language tour - that's 3. We really tried to do our own tour in an organized way from top to bottom seeing each alcove end using our map ( I tend to get 2 or 3 maps for scrapbooking later) but it was van not until we got to the giftshop that I realized this museum might have the sunflowers by Van Gogh, waterlillies by Monet and the famous Paris street scene by Renoir - I found them on fridge magnets - not exactly the way you want to see world reknowned art. We never did find them - maybe they were there and maye they weren't but the moral to this tale is this: do a tour, do all tours, get there early and bring your camera, stupid!
Love to all
PS - Eden and Teagan I cannot wait to see your new dos!!!!!!!!
Kim/Mom
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