July 15: Swift slides & Lightning through the Louvre

Not surprisingly, we had a BIG sleep-in after our late night Bastille Day adventures.

Rather than having another day of looking at classic buildings and structures, it felt like we needed a family play time. Faith, in particular, was campaigning for some kind of outdoor swim, considering the heat wave we have been travelling in.

Google identified a few outdoor pools, but they didn’t seem very special. Then I found something called Aquaboulevard. Built in the late 1980s, this facility boasts as being the largest water park in Europe. A little like the World Waterpark in west Edmonton, but with fewer slides, has indoor and outdoor pools, and a man made beach area.

Sign posted at entry stated no pant shorts-style swim suits, which is the only type that we boys brought. When I asked if our men had acceptable swim trunks, the response was “pas du tout!” (Not at all!) Had to buy some from swim shop (although there apparently was another option to buy from a swimsuit vending machine!). Pretty hysterical to have three boys in matching European style tight short trunks.

It was a great place for family play.

11 slides: the most interesting launched from within a blue whale statue, including depictions of the whale’s inside guts…. (Photos from Aquaboulevard website)

We had dinner at French McDonald’s, in keeping with the kids’ desire to eat at one in every country we visit. Menu included unique options like curry dip for nuggets, potato wedges instead of classic fries, sparkling water fountain drinks, and ‘Croque McDo’.

We then took the Metro back into central Paris as we bought tickets to visit the Louvre, which was open late on Fridays. A bit of frustration getting in: website stated ages 25 and under were free, but apparently this is only for French nationals, so we had to buy ticket for Thane after all.

It was pretty lightning quick survey of the museum’s “hit” exhibits; we had just under 90 minutes to get through as much as possible. For context, Thane had read somewhere that a full exploration of all the museum’s holdings could take three full days!

Some major takeaways from my observations and brief time at the Louvre:

• There is so much content derived from the Gospels, especially in the Italian painters section. Many of these masterpiece works featured parts of the story of Christ. Reminded me of a Francis Shaeffer book I listened to once called “How then shall we live?”. The book explored the development of ideas about God and humanity, through the lens of changes in artistic expression by the masters over several thousand years.

• Virtually all art we witnessed was focused on the human body and form.

• The museum still dates the works of art according to how many years (or centuries) before or after Jesus (B.C. Or A.D.) Reminds me of another book I recently listened to called “Person of Interest” by J. Warner Wallace. It makes a compelling case for Christ’s impact in all aspects of our culture, including art, music, literature, science, and not least of all our calendar!

• There is art at the Louvre dating thousands of years before Christ. The oldest piece is estimated to be 8000-9000 years old!

• So many stairs! Going through the Louvre at this speed is a workout!

After the Louvre, we enjoyed a lovely sunset stroll through Tuileries towards Place de la Concorde. Blessing to watch mama duck with chicks in octagonal pool there.

The contrast to this beauty was passing a family panhandling in front of metro station entrance; appeared to be a couple with two preschool aged kids, sitting on a mat on the pavement asking for spare change. Every city we have ever been to in the world has people like this. So hard to know what to do. On one hand, we have clearly enough to spare; we just spent on luxuries today like swimming, eating out, going to a museum, and merely travelling away from our own home. On the other hand, how much are we actually helping by giving this family spare change? Could we be hurting them more to do so, in the long run? We can imagine the stories that may have led this family into this situation, but we are not generally in the habit of entering into relationship to learn the actual story. That would be too inconvenient; it would interrupt our plans. But the words of Jesus are still and always relevant, but also are unsettling: “love your neighbour as yourself”. I pray this family finds adequate provision, and improvement for their situation. I pray it’s enough for now.

We wrapped up the day watching a terrible family movie at the flat; animated film loosely based on Riverdance, involving dancing deer and frogs.