Atlantica - 01.11.2002, Page 24

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hallway to see whether or not Mona Lisa’s eyes actually follow them
across the room, it’s surprising students and sidewalk artists are
allowed to pull up a chair.
Time is running out on my game of “speed Louvre“. Next stop:
Greek and Roman antiquities. There’s the Winged Victory of
Samothrace, a marble piece found on the island of Samothrace
around 190 BC. I pause in front of the 11-foot statue and catch my
breath, wondering how they manoeuvre these pieces of art in and
out of the museum. I continue down the stairs of the Sully Wing,
heading straight for Vénus de Milo. Once the crowd thins, I make my
way up to the front where two honeymooners ask me to take their
picture in front of the armless Aphrodite.
“This is my favourite spot in the Louvre,” David Ong tells me, after
I take a picture of him and his wife, who have travelled here from
Singapore on their honeymoon.
I take one more picture that the ecstatic couple will most certainly
hang on their refrigerator, then I’m off, my hour of “speed Louvre“
having expired.
EXACTLY HOW MUCH DOES THAT SHIRT COST?
A short distance from the Seine river, walking up rue des Deux
Ponts to rue de Fourcy, is the Marais district, running through the
third and fourth arrondissements. You don’t need to spend much
time footing over the narrow streets of the Marais before under-
standing that the lively neighbourhood is a tad different. You can
blend in by wearing Prada shoes, a yarmulke or a skintight pair of
jeans, along with a skintight white tee shirt.
In Marais, you’ll see cafés full of stylish Parisians on one corner,
across the street a kosher shop, and kitty-corner a gay bookstore.
The Marais stirs these mixtures of peoples together to create one
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: THE LIVELY ALBERT CYUPMARKT; SEA OF BICYCLES OUTSIDE CENTRAAL STATION; FILMING THE LIFE OF PAINTER
JOHANNES VERMEER (1632–1675) – THE CITY STILL LOOKS THE SAME.
WHERE’S MY FOOD? ENJOYING A BIT OF FRESH AIR OUTSIDE A PARISIAN CAFÉ.
PARIS
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