Aka. "Destination Anywhere", "The Boy and Girl from County Bavaria"... After a very intense year in Würzburg (Germany), I'm back in Salamanca. I probably won't have that many experiences to write, but there's always an excuse to post a new entry!

On July 15th, we dedicated the whole morning to art. Our visit of the day was the Louvre Museum.

It's not only humongous, but also a very beautiful place. Already the building is very special, like a huge temple of the arts. What I liked best was that it was full of mythological works of art, be it from the Ancient Greece, Rome or Egypt, which are in my opinion the most interesting (religious art usually gives me the creeps). Besides, it's free for Europeans between 18 and 25, just like most of the important museums in Paris.

We knew that it would be too big and we wouldn't have a chance to see it completely, even if we spent all day long there. And yes, that's the way it was. Unfortunately, we only got to see part of the Denon and Sully Wings. At least we had a good plan of some things we wanted to see, and succedeed. Here are some examples:

The Winged Victory of Samothrace

Venus de Milo (and my sister)

And of course, the Mona Lisa. As I had already been told, it's very disappointing because it's quite a small painting protected by a glass and there's always a huge queue to take a picture of it. I wasn't really that disappointed because I had been previously warned, but I refused to stand in line, so the credit of this picture (just like all the other pictures) goes to my mum.

The Seated Scriba, my dad's obsession of the day ;)

And Liberty Leading the People, one of my personal favourites (sorry the flag is cut out)... and my dad.

I'm sorry there are no pictures of other classics, such as Madonna of the Rocks or Saint John the Baptist. As you can imagine, the museum was exhausting, so in the afternoon we were not exactly in the mood for more art, even though we really enjoyed it. Therefore we decided to do something different and visit one of the most bohemian and popular districts in Paris: Montmartre.

The first stop was the beautiful Sacré-Coeur Basilica, as it couldn't be otherwise. Too bad we were not allowed to take pictures of the inside.To see it, you have to go up quite a number of steps, which is probably one of my mum's biggest nightmares. One of the alternatives is taking a funicular. In my opinion, the ride was slightly disappointing, since it barely lasted two minutes and even so was pretty slow. However, I was glad I didn't have to do it on foot.

This already gives you an idea of how crowded it was. But I liked the nice atmosphere outside the church, with a guitarist singing different songs on the steps. That, of course, gave it a bohemian touch that totally made up for the fact that we barely got to walk around and see the alternative, artistic side of Montmartre.

After visiting the Sacré Coeur we took the Montmartrain (a small train that takes you from the Sacré Coeur to the Place Pigalle and vice versa) to see one of the things I had been looking most forward to: The Clichy area. On the way, we had a chance to see a little bit of the Montmartre district, which is a bit more realistic than all the other tourist attractions in Paris. You should know that our hotel was located in quite a posh part of the city, which was full of fairytale-like buildings that instantly made me think of the Playmobil Dream House. Therefore, Montmartre was a big contrast (finally we saw supermarkets!), since it has a certain ghetto feeling which is part of its charm. I personally was very surprised to see so many Asian restaurants (especially Japanese - when I'm back in Paris, guess where I'm heading!) That might be no surprise seeing how many Asians you bump into wherever you go...

And now, let's talk about Clichy. I was very curious about it because I had heard that it was a big street full of erotic shops and neon lights. That reminded me of the Red-Light District in Amsterdam, so I was curious to see what the French are like in that department. Well, I have to say that our (not-quite-so-)dear neighbours are a little bit more prudish than the Dutch. It was indeed similar, but a lot more moderate. Nevertheless, what I wanted to see most there is the building that inspired one of my favourite films: the Moulin Rouge.

Obviously, many years have gone by since the time the film takes place in, so the Moulin Rouge doesn't have the same meaning anymore. Nowadays, although it's still a cabaret, its main interest is historic. In fact, there's a sign in front of it explaining its history. What really caught my eye was that it was open on October 5th, 1889... exactly 98 years before my birthday! Am I the only one who thinks it's a sign? The sad thing is that we couldn't do anything apart from seeing it from the outside, since the cheapest show is 80 € with no drinks... So after that we headed back to the hotel and relaxed a little bit with some cocktails ;)

That was a great ending for a great day full of art - in more than one sense! Next entry: More museums and a little bit of water.