Paris Archives | North of Something

On July 16th, 2015, our first full day in Paris, we took a taxi to the Louvre Museum. We were a little nervous bringing a four-year-old into what is arguably the most incredible museum in the world, but it actually went really well and I’m excited to share the experience!

First of all, I wasn’t sure if my spirited, energetic son would actually enjoy any of the beauty and the history or simply endure them. If you don’t know my son …. he likes to jump, he likes to yell, he likes to run, and he LICKED A WALL in downtown Paris. So I popped a sucker in his mouth to keep it occupied and held his hand the entire time, and crossed my fingers he would at the least not destroy anything. But I was so hoping he would grasp some of the greatness we were about to see.

We started by looking at the sculptures, which took up nearly an entire wing of the museum—some were large, some small, but all were very old and intricately designed.

Knowing how old these sculptures were, I wanted my son to have some sense of awe and respect for them, but I had no idea how to show him how beautiful they were. Luckily, my son began the conversation: “Look at this one—it’s a mommy with her sweetie!” It was then that I realized the best way for him to connect with them was to see each one for what they were really trying to portray. “Can you see how much she loves her baby by the way she’s looking at him and how she’s holding him?” I asked. My son’s face exploded into a smile and he nodded. After that we stopped at every “mommy with her sweetie” sculpture and my son wanted to give me a hug and a kiss at everyone, because the sculptures were making him feel something – exactly as the artist intended.

There was one statue of a man holding his son, which we spent awhile just looking at. He saw the love in the faces carved into marble and stone and it reminded him how much his mom and dad loved him and how much he loved being close to us.

“Mom, why is the lion biting his butt?” Good question!

We also saw sculptures of large snakes with swords and shields and we talked about who was winning the battle and why. “Mom, this one has knights and fairies and man-babies,” he said. “Those are actually called cherubs, but they def look like man-babies,” I told him. Ha!

There were quite a few sculptures of kids and he was cracking himself up imitating some of them. “Hey mom! Look at me!”

On the way to see the Mona Lisa exhibit we saw many other paintings. Some were ginormous — it was awe-inspiring.

Holding hands, we didn’t stop to read the silver and bronze plaques; how old they were or who painted them, but we paid special attention to the paintings with kids and animals. We had fun finding hidden puppies, bunnies, turtles, and cats in murals that were as big as an entire wall.

Many of the paintings were larger than life-size. Some were bright, realistic colors and others were dark and ominous looking. We spent a long time looking at a smaller portrait of a man’s face. “I think he looks angry. What do you think he’s feeling?” I asked my son. He thought the man looked both mad and surprised. I hadn’t noticed that he looked surprised, but when I looked closer at his eyes, I agreed. We saw portraits of mothers breastfeeding their babies and families eating dinner together. There were sheep and goats on a mountain in one, musical instruments in another. My husband waited in line to see the Mona Lisa while my son and I rested on a bench and played with some small Star Wars toys we had brought along.

Without a tour guide or even reading most of the plaques, I still got the deep feeling of my small place in the universe and how life can be so similar to the lives of people who lived so many centuries ago. Happily, I also felt that my son enjoyed the depth of how old the pieces were, and he also realized how like us all these people were: with their happiness and their fear, the mother’s love and the father’s protection. The brave, the happy, and the dead all mixed together. We only spent about two hours at the Louvre before my son was bored and hungry and wanting to wipe his fingers on all the walls or kick something, but I felt like we really made the most out of our time there.

This experience at the Louvre showed me that it is possible for a young and wild boy to feel both wonder and empathy looking at artwork. What more can anyone hope for when experiencing art? As a mother, it is heartwarming to know that my son is capable of exploring his feelings through art, and at such a young age. He is almost six now and whether or not he remembers the details years from now, I think he is on the right track to appreciating art as life.

Juneau hike with my cousin Kanani, Aunt Bernie, Mom, and Grandma before her 75th Birthday.

My grandma, Barbara Pavitt, lives in Juneau, Alaska, in the same home she raised her family of 7. She still travels extensively, hikes the mountains in Juneau, and kicks my butt in yoga at 82. I did a phone interview with her yesterday afternoon about her thoughts on travel.

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Jamie: Why do you like to travel? What is your biggest motivation to take a trip?

Barbara: There’s so many other places in the world that I want to see. My motivation is usually someone says, “Hey, you want to go to India with me? or I hear about a local group that’s going somewhere. Just because places are there, is why I want to go see them.

Jamie: What was your favorite trip you’ve ever been on and why?

Barbara: I hate that question! I would probably say India with Road Scholars. It’s not just being a tourist, we heard lectures by local people about the culture and different aspects of the country. We visited the Taj Mahal. It’s nice because you don’t feel like a tourist, you’re more like a guest. We got to actually meet some women in the village and they talked to us about politics and education. They still have the caste system even though it’s illegal.

My Mom, Grandma, and Aunt Bernie at the Louvre Museum, Paris

Jamie: Were the Indian women what you expected or did what they say about politics and education surprise you?

Barbara: Well I didn’t have preconceived notions of what they would be like, so no. But I also realized it was a select group of women, not necessarily representative of all the women in India.

Jamie: How do multiple stories about a country change how we see them?

Barbara: It gives us a broader view of a country. We know with our own country there’s a lot of different cultures. You hear about hillbillies in the south, eskimos in the north. If you’ve never heard anything about a country, and you only hear one story you only get that one side, it’s incomplete.

Jamie: In my Travel Writing class we watched a TED Talk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie “The Danger of a Single Story.” She says: “The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story” (12:57).

Barbara: Yeah that’s what I said!

Jamie: In your travels where did you get most of your information on the local culture?

Patisserie in Viralet, France with local hostess Irene Hecht

Barbara: I’d like to say talking with people but It’s usually from the tour guides. You’re kind of shielded from the people when you’re on a tour. I did this backpacking trip in Switzerland, we were on our own, the four of us. That time we stayed in hostels so we talked to people that worked there and other travelers, met people on the way. It’s more personal and interesting when you actually meet people and exchange names.

Jamie: Why is it important that we listen to different stories or go to different countries?

Barbara: Well I think the more we know about other cultures the more we can all get along. There’s more understanding, we’re less likely to think of other people as enemies when you go those countries and you’ve met them.

The house of friends who hosted her in Viralet, France

Jamie: Is there anything else you want to share about your travels?

Barbara: I went to France [80^th birthday trip] and stayed with people that knew the area, met some locals. One day your Aunt Bernie and I took a couple busses and went to a little café, sat there and watched people, it was fun, that was the way I thought it was going to be in the first place [before scheduling all the sightseeing tours], doing whatever we wanted to do.

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Lunch after a hike to neighboring village in Dordogne, France

When I reminded my Grandma this morning that I wanted some of her photos from her travels, she said she was getting ready to leave for a hike so she would send them later today. I hope I am that active throughout my life!

There used to be a time when women were not the normal travelers, it was a break in the norm. Mary Suzanne Schriber said “Travel rewrote home in new and more appealing terms.” I think for me, my reasons for travel usually involve wanting to break out of my normal routine and see something new, so that I can come back home with fresh eyes. But I suppose if someone said “Hey, you want to go to India with me?” that would be a good motivation to travel, too, right Grandma?!

Modern advances now allow travelers to enjoy comfortable accomadations throughout most of a journey, allowing for both young and old to travel extensively. In the 19^th century things were very different, and that’s just one of the reasons that women didn’t often travel. Here’s an account from “Traveller’s Tales: North America” of Isabella Bird (1831-1904), an English woman traveling to the American West. Here’s an excerpt from her travels:

Wagons with white tilts, thick-hided oxen with heavy yokes, mettlesome steeds with high peaked saddles…There, in a long wooden shed with blackened rafters and an earthen floor, we breakfasted, as seven o’clock, on johnny-cake, squirrels, buffalo-hump, dampers, and buckwheat, tea and corn spirit, with a crowd of emigrants, hunters, and adventurers; and soon after re-embarked for Rock Island, our little steamer with difficulty stemming the mighty tide of the Father of Rivers [the Mississippi River].

Honestly, if that’s the way I had to travel now, I would just turn my suitcase into a flower planter and never look back. Luckily, even the cheapest modes of transportation available now are far superior to riding wagons pulled by oxen while snacking on squirrels.

More photos coming soon… as soon as Grandma is back from her hike!

Update: Grandma made it back safely from her hike and sent me pictures as promised :)

Grandma and me reading a book on her boat – Juneau, Alaska 1989

The Louvre Through the Eyes of a Four Year Old

Travel Interview with my Grandma | Barbara Pavitt