Tag Archives: Musée du Louvre

60 Years Ago Today

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Friday, 20 June 1952:

Around 6:15 a.m. or thereabouts we put our swimming suits on first and then our clothes. I went down the street for breakfast and had two little bananas and one orange for 66 francs. The French children were just going to school.

Then we were back on the road again. We came to Arles, an ancient Roman city in France, which had an arena that seats 26,000. After that we saw an obelisk, a Cathedral of St. Trophine, a cloisters, and an Alaede Tombs (once Roman cemetery). Honoring at church was one of the principal activities in the town.

The next town we came to turned out to be Arles. Andre had got off on the wrong road and we had to go back to Nimes. We found a blind priest with a dog along the way. Andre decided to keep the latecomers roll in order to get the kids back to the bus on time.

While on the bus I was learning to count in Italian. This part of the country looks about like Cedar City to me. We went back past the Maison Temple, white house hotel, and plaza. It ‘s 10:30 a.m. and we’re off again. Well this country looks a little richer. We came to the Le Petit Rhone tributary. We had to get out and walk across the bridge because it could only hold eight tons and we weighed twelve tons. The bus was eight tons, and we were four tons. That’s a lot of weight!
Then we crossed the big Rhone again in Arles. There was a former ancient palace, Museon Arlaten,which was established as a museum in 1876. Afterwards we saw a statue of St. Christopher, an old carriage, and a statue of Neptune that was made in the 17th century for Louis XIV. I noticed oleander was growing out of the rocks. The Venus de Arles sculpture in the Louvre probably came from these ruins.

We were given 10 minutes and it was 30 minutes before we left. How can we keep a late roll when almost everybody is late? Herr Watkins and Henry were the last ones to come back. On the road again there was a field covered with piles of rocks like it was trying to reclaim the land. I slept through Salon Aix en Provence which is a region with beautiful statues and fountains. Then the landscape changed to mountainous roads. It looked a lot like Utah.

We stopped at a Shield service station for a little exercise. We were grateful for a nice rest room. Now we were seeing red soil as we discovered a grey streamlined train and our first glimpse of the Mediterranean Sea.

Frejus, a seaside region with a medieval city as well, was a popular seaside resort. There were ruins of an old Roman aqueduct, barbed wire entanglements around some kind of military base, white buildings with orange trim, chocolate guards at the gate, cement mixers, and winding mountainous roads going into Cannes. The kids started putting on their bathing suits in the back of the bus.

Finally the beach. What a sight! There were boats and people with a beautiful white hotel along the waterfront. We walked along the beach front admiring the suntans of the bathers. The beach was lined with umbrellas and lounging chairs. The water was buoyant and we rode the waves and walked down along the beach to a pier. Carol and I laid down on the pier in the sun. The mob had gone back to the bus, so we followed them. I had my picture taken with Andre. We piled back into the bus with wet bathing suits and all.

It’s about 7 p.m. now. On the road out, Andre tried to get through an underpass that we didn’t quite fit in. It ended up scraping the baggage on the top of the bus. So Andre had everyone pile to the front so he could back up the bus without fouling things up any worse.

We took the Oleander lined road going out of Cannes toward Nice. It seemed to have the bluest water in the world. It was a city of comparisons with the old and new. There were beautiful new Spanish style homes with palm trees. Nice seemed like a continuation of Cannes with beautiful waterfront hotels.

Our Hotel Cecil was farther downtown, but it was not bad looking. There were bathrooms in every room which was almost too good to be true. Elders Waite and Valentine had met us at the hotel.
Back in the room I jumped in the tub and then had a delicious dinner for 360 francs at the restaurant down the street. I had potage jambon (ham), beans and fruit. I tried to write a letter to Bud, but fell asleep in the middle of it.

60 Years Ago Today

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Tuesday, 17 June 1952:

I t was a slow start as we discovered the Louvre was not open. Wouldn’t that frost you? And that was where I had planned to spend most of the day. Instead we stopped by an oculist (ophthalmologist) shop to get the ear piece on my sunglasses fixed. Thanks to Alicia, we were successful in getting the lady to understand us.

Then we left a forwarding address at the American Express for the next mail stop. Next was the Lafeyette Department Store that was just like an opera house. It had a dome of stained glass and ornate gold railings around each floor.

We had lunch on the terrace of the Lafayette Department Store after searching four floors to find it. We had a view of the apartment roofs. There were two table cloths, cloth napkins, ice water, and bread. I ordered an omelette and ham while I ate four pieces of bread. Alice got a rare steak, but by using her French she got it recooked some more.

Then we paid the cashier and left for Printemps, another department store, and cheaper restaurant. We found the toy department and bought Kleenex for 325 francs.

Outside again, a lady surprisingly stopped and asked me “ou est la metro?” We tried to help her and then we took the metro to the Seine River. We got off near Sarah Barnhardt’s Theatre and identified the Saint Jacques Tower. We traveled to see St. Chapelle but it was closed. Tuesday’s sure seemed to be the day for everything to be closed.

Instead we strolled down by the Seine River. Here we saw another side of Paris. People lived in river boats with their wash blowing in the breeze. Others seemed to live along the banks, although we didn’t see any shelter for them. One man was washing his clothes in the river while an old beggar was eating trash out of a dirty can. Others were laying by the side of the river sleeping or unconscious. Then we took pictures of some little children and gave them some gum.

We found the Pont Marie metro station to go to the Eiffel Tower. We changed lines five times in order to get to the Eiffel Tower by the shortest route. We switched once at Franklin D. Roosevelt Station, made a mistake, and had to come back to it from Etaile.

The newest and most modern show windows on the trains were of an aluminum looking material. The walls were covered with the same thing as well. It was really smoky and stuffy in the train. I missed a few scenes resting my eyes.

Afterwards, there was one interesting scene with a Negro nanny, daddy and little baby crying. Another scene showed a spinning pool on a stage. It was quite a trick with girls coming down from the ceiling. I took several good shots from the second Etage (story). I was going to walk up to see it but I didn’t have time. The metro was jammed with people going home from work. We literally rubbed shoulders with the people of France.

I met a cute little English man coming back from the Eiffel Tower to the hotel, and he helped us cross the street. He told us he worked at the auto races.

Then Dick guided us down several streets from the Montmartre metro to get to the Folles Theater at 8:30 p.m. The curtain went up just as we sat down with Dick, Henry, and about thirty women. Talk about luxurious costumes and shapely figures in the play. There were about four risque scenes, but nothing in particular happened when they were all dressed up. It was interesting.

60 Years Ago Today

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Sunday, 15 June 1952:

Since we stopped to get carnations for Dr. Rogers and Dr. Watkins for Father’s Day, we were late for Sunday School at the French Branch. At the meeting a convert was confirmed and we sang Prenez Courage. Later an English class was held where President Woolf welcomed us and told us a little about the history of the middle area of France, Joan of Arc, and Napoleon. President and Mrs. Taylor were introduced and released from another mission.

After church we gabbed with President Woolf, members, and some missionaries, Davis Bitton, Louis Cardon, and Harriet Robinson. President Woolf recommended a little restaurant Caveau and it turned out to be our best meal since arriving in Paree. The meal consisted of hors d’oeuvres, ham, spinach, and strawberries for 475 francs which included the tip.

An English lady gave us a little assistance in ordering because the waiters did not speak English, and we had some difficulty reading the menu. She and her companions, another English lady and a Frenchman, were interesting to talk to. We told them our story and they informed us of theirs.
At 2:30 p.m. we arrived at the Louvre and bumped into part of the mob with Herr Watkins and Rogers. We paid 50 francs to take our cameras inside. Then I snapped two pictures of the original Venus de Milo. And I examined busts of Roman Emperors, fragments from the Temple of Zeus, paintings, and frescoes. There was an original winged victory statue La Victoire de Samothrace, statue of Botticelli—a painter of the Florntine school, Fra Angelico, famous early Florentine painter, and painting of Jesus of Nazareth in The Crucifixion. Titien, 1488-1576, who was one of the most successful painters who ever lived, displayed a painting. The Veronese Wedding of Cana had 120 figures with barely two figures that were not larger than life. Other paintings included Mary Magdalene washing Christ’s feet in the house of Simon, statue Jupiter of Versailles and painting Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. We needed to spend more time in the Louvre. There was so much to see, and it was all so magnificent.

We started back to the hotel, but about faced into the Regent Hotel. Instead of going back to our hotel, we wrote letters in the beautiful Regent Hotel lounge until church. After writing we ate lunch and stopped for delicious French pastries at the shop near the church. And we bought bread for sandwiches for tomorrow.

At church we joined in on choir practice and gave most of the church program which included: a talk by Dr. Rogers, a quartet in French by Kay, Marilyn, Pat and Alicia, a talk by Dr. Watkins, a song by Mrs. Rogers in French, some chorus songs You’ll Never Walk Alone and America, and a farewell speech by Bob Mercer. Afterwards we chatted with the members of the church.

Then Carol, Alene, Irene, Hermine, Joyce and I ventured off to the Eiffel Tower. We viewed the outside of the Palais de Chaillot while the fountains were lit up. Alene and I went to the first story of the tower and met Puerto Ricans, Zachary Scott and his friends, just coming down. The Arc de Triomphe and Sacre Coeur were all lit up as well. The Seine River and lights of the city were just beautiful. We walked on the lawn and took the metro back to the hotel through the Franklin D. Roosevelt station again.