Louvre Horror

We arrived at the Louvre on Sunday afternoon, hoping to see the Poussin exhibition and a few Flemish painters. 

The courtyard with the pyramids was crowded with tourists posing and taking photos, kids pushing and chasing each other, the guys selling the Eiffel Tower replicas and water and lines of people waiting to enter the museum.

Something caught our attention right away--a huge red metal box that spilled into about a quarter of the courtyard.   Ugly, ugly, ugly.  It has the words "bookstore" written in a variety of languages.  I was so horrified I could barely hold my phone steady to take this photo.

While it doesn't look permanent, in France, you never know.  

We entered through the entrance reserved for Amis du Louvre members.  The entrance has been fortified and has three guards in front and two more inside.  Last time we visited, there was one uninterested guy who didn't even check our cards.  We entered and went directly to the Information booth, which had also moved.  A nice woman declared the red building to be temporary and "moche"; translation is ugly, horrible, sad. 

The Louvre is undergoing a big renovation.  They are re-doing the bookstore.  When it is finished, the big red, ugly building will disappear.  Evidently a lot of the ground floor will be re-done.  We had to figure out a new way to leave the building, our old "Sortie" is covered with boards and tape. 

I wonder if they'll add more food/beverage service.  We are never able to find a place for a cup of tea or coffee, the restaurants are filled to the brim. 

I loved the previous bookstore, although it had been recently changed to two levels and the stairs were a bit slippery.  I was always able to find great books at this store.

We did see the Poussin.  It wasn't very crowded.  We did see the Flemish paintings which I preferred to the Poussin.  We did not go into the bookstore on principle. 

Les Faux Amis, False French Friends

I'm still struggling, after all these years with speaking, reading, writing French.  While I can communicate most of the time and understand what others say, sometimes it isn't pretty.

Verb conjugations go out the window in a heated debate.  Articles and adjectives, which must agree in gender and number, get all fouled up.  People get the idea, I'm sure.  This is all very hard for an educated person to deal with but this is my reality.

Luckily, today's faux amis lesson involved a stranger; I'll never see him again and he taught me a word.  Bravo.

I was jogging (slowly) in the Luxembourg Gardens this morning and a man wearing a suit and tie, dress shirt, hard shoes, flagged me down and when I stopped, he said, "Une Bonne Allure".  Hmmm, I thought it must be this cute pink jacket from Athleta.  Smiling, I finished my workout and came home to look it up, just to make sure I knew what he was saying.

Alas, "allure" is another faux amis, it means "pace or speed".  He was either complimenting my speed or telling me to go faster, I'll never know which one.

Faux amis are horrifying to me.

Here are some more that could slip out of my mouth at any time. The first word is the English, the second is the meaning in French.

Sensible
Delai
Raisin
Prune
Intoxicaation
Hardi
Assister

There are hundreds of such traps just waiting to be sprung on me.