Contiki Holidays<\/a>\u2019 London and Paris tour. It was a short one, where the two cities were squeezed into seven days, with some of our new acquaintances moving on to Rome, Amsterdam, or staying longer in Paris like we were.<\/p>\nContiki\u2019s mantra is \u201cNo Regrets\u201d \u2013 and this perspective helped us with our decision making.<\/p>\n
![\"Contiki\"](\"http:\/\/www.tripcentral.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/TripSense_Contiki-1024x768.jpg\")
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Would we regret not spending 149 euros to see a Moulin Rouge performance? Would we regret not indulging in a Nutella-banana crepe on our last night in Paris after we were full from dinner? Would we regret not standing in line to purchase overpriced macarons from the famous Laduree? My answer was yes to these three things – so I did them.<\/p>\n
When we asked if we would regret not going into the Louvre, the answer was no. I love art, I just don\u2019t love crowds of people pushing their way up close, constant clicks and (prohibited) flashes of cameras and interruption of the should-be peaceful environment I had hoped for.<\/p>\n
I got my fill of Monets, Manets, and Van Goghs in the Mus\u00e9e d’Orsay, housed in a beautiful old train station. But for some reason, I was not inclined to stand in front of Da Vinci\u2019s famous portrait. Perhaps it was because of hearsay: how small people say the painting is, how hot the museum was, and how crowded and noisy it gets – and that was a set up for disappointment. But those who visit Paris, or Europe in general during peak season, have come to expect these circumstances.<\/p>\n
Aside from the Mona Lisa, the Mus\u00e9e du Louvre is home to the famous Venus de Milo sculpture, usually the second work of art on Louvre must-see lists. The museum also houses works by Rembrant, Vermeer, Rubens, and Michelangelo.<\/p>\n
![\"Louvre](\"http:\/\/www.tripcentral.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Paris-Louvre-Museum-1024x685.jpg\")
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The idea of walking into a building filled with over 35,000 works of art is overwhelming. I saw it from the outside, and the building is a masterpiece in itself. The Louvre\u2019s glass Pyramid, which acts as the museum\u2019s main entrance, was built in 1989.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t the money or even the lines that deterred us from entering the Louvre. It was the time commitment of all there was to see \u2013 and a need to spend a whole day, or at least half, exploring its interior. Time is precious when you\u2019re on a schedule in Europe.<\/p>\n
Instead, I spent my time in Paris enjoying a picnic under the Eiffel Tower, popping in and out of stores to admire hand-crafts and crafted-sweets, and meandering the cobbled streets in search of hidden treasures.<\/p>\n
You can\u2019t see everything when you travel, but it is important to compromise with your travel partner. Decide on what you must-see, what you would like to see if you have the time, and what you don\u2019t want to bother with.<\/p>\n
This is not to say I will never go into the Louvre, or that I don\u2019t want to see the Mona Lisa. But for this trip, I just knew it wouldn\u2019t make me smile as much as seeing artists paint portraits atop of Montmontre or visiting the March\u00e9 aux Puces flea market in a quieter area of the city. Everyone\u2019s travel styles are different \u2013 and I don\u2019t regret it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On my recent trip to Paris, my travel partner and I pondered this question a million times: Are we sure we don\u2019t want to go into the Louvre and see the Mona Lisa? Our choice to miss out on one of the world\u2019s finest art galleries was a conscious one. It wasn\u2019t that we had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":15921,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":""},"categories":[3551,3553,3549],"tags":[],"modified_by":"Amanda Stancati","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tripcentral.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15920"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tripcentral.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tripcentral.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tripcentral.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tripcentral.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15920"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.tripcentral.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21975,"href":"https:\/\/www.tripcentral.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15920\/revisions\/21975"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tripcentral.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tripcentral.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tripcentral.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tripcentral.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}