Cracking the Da Vinci Code

For our first day in Paris we had arranged a walking tour of the Louvre with Paris Muse Tours. We headed off to the Arc de Carousel between the Louvre and the Tuileries to meet our guide Kristen, who has a PhD in Art History. She was to show us the sights and sequences from the book and movie, but with a twist.

We began with a brass plaque on the ground in the forecourt alongside the Glass Pyramid that was one of the rose line described in the movie.

The "Arago" brass plate is in fact a recent addition by the French Government. The actual meriden to which the movie refers is however real. Many people around us today would not have been aware of the significance of this brown spot on the ground.



The rest of the tour went on to show us symbology often adopted by the Church was in fact re-interpreted from symbols used in pagan times. The statue here is in fact not of the Madonna and Child but of the Empress Messaline (wife of the Emperor Claudius) who wanted to be remembered as a motherly figure.









Other symbols that we could have missed include this swastika on the stem of this terracotta artifact - it actually dates from 700BC and was used to denote endless life. Not what we currently associate it with!

There were so many other treasures in the Louvre which show the symbolism that the book and movie make such a point of - the Venus de Milo and the Nike of Samothrace with its wings of victory at sea (perhaps the source of the Nike brand and its trademark 'wings'??.

Kristen informed us however that there is no position of Professor of Symbology, as was Robert Langdon in the book (played by Tom Hanks in the movie) - such work is the brief of art historians. Facinating stuff though!!!

What to do this afternoon????After a Croque Monsieur for DD and crepes chocolat for DS we decided a visit to Sacre Coeur and the Montmarte district for its fabric shops was not out of the question, despite it being late in the afternoon. A ride to the Metro station Anvers delivered us to the base of a steep hill, which we followed upwards until we caught sight of the beautiful Sacre Coeur cathedral, complete with skies clearing of the rain clouds from earlier today.

And to think we nearly didn't go!!!!

We stayed for a wander around the Christmas Markets, and after more hot chocolate, hot mulled wine, and "Saucisse" (French for sausage, which were way too big to finish) after which we went down to street level to the fabric stores.

The two largest stores, Marche Saint Pierre and Tissus Reine, are just across the road from each other and each have 5 floors of fabric!!!! The were many other smaller stores selling everything from dancewear to upholstery fabrics.












  The stores were open until late and very busy right up until closing time. Note: Lots of men buying fabric were also found in the store!!!!

Of course, we had left ourselves too little time for DW to actually peruse, select and purchase fabric in any meaningful way - there was far too much to choose from! Ah, but with a little time, and a group of sewing pals for DW...........