Chapter 874 - Visiting The Louvre
Actually, Altair and Vega had been to Paris quite often. Since they were little, both of them had been used to traveling the world with their parents. Not only because their father and mother had houses in many countries, but in the past, they were often taken by Nicolae for adventures when he was still in a relationship with Aleksis.
At that time, Alaric and Aleksis were separated for ten years, and each did not know that the other was still alive. Nicolae often brought Aleksis and her two children to entertain them, and he trained the twins to become independent.
They had explored the Caribbean, Africa, Mongolia, and even saw the aurora twice. Once in Iceland, and once in Norway. They were quite familiar with various important cities in the world.
However, the twins were always acting enthusiastically and looked in awe when they saw Paris iconic places. Their first day was spent visiting the Eiffel Tower. The students were so excited to take pictures together. They took selfies with various poses and shared their experiences on social media.
Actually, Tatiana was eager to share her experience of visiting the Eiffel Tower via Virconnect to her followers who were willing to pay. Unfortunately, Mr. Rhieu did not allow it because he thought Tatiana would not focus on his explanation, and their objective for having this study trip would not be achieved.
"You can sell or share your Virconnect experience with your followers in your free hours, okay. Not during our study time," Mr. Rhieu said when he told Tatiana not to share her experience in front of the Eiffel Tower via Virconnect. "You can come back here later and do as you like."
Tatiana could only frown, but she could not protest. Mr. Rhieu was right. She then approached Vega, who pretended to take lots of photos of the Eiffel Tower so as not to make her friends suspicious.
"Vega, let's come back here again later today. I want to share the experience of traveling to the Eiffel Tower via Virconnect," she told the girl.
Vega raised one eyebrow when she heard Tatiana's words. "Tatia... you know that I don't like being in front of the camera. I can't help you."
"Uhm ... you don't have to come inside," Tatiana said quickly. "I still remember that you guys don't like being photographed."
"When do you need it?" Vega asked.
"I want it for dinner time. We can ask permission to eat dinner outside. We can all eat in the French restaurant on top of the Eiffel Tower. Many people are curious to see how the restaurant up there looks like," Tatiana answered enthusiastically.
"Wahh ... I can't go with you to dinner. My father will arrive in Paris this afternoon, and we promised to have dinner with Auntie Marion and Jean-Marie," Vega said in an apologetic voice.
"Ah .. your handsome father will come too ??" Tatiana's face suddenly glowed. "Will he follow you while in Paris ???"
Vega just laughed at seeing Tatiana's joyful expression. Her friend had never hidden her admiration for Nicolae. She always tried to look normal in front of Altair, but Vega knew her friend well and knew that Tatiana liked his brother.
However, Tatiana did not hide her admiration for Daddy Nic. Maybe she thought since Nicolae was an a.d.u.l.t, he wouldn't think too much about his daughter's friend admiring him openly.
Vega replied, "That's right. Daddy happened to have some business in Paris, so he might as well wait for us here."
"Ahhh .. you are so lucky to have such a caring father," Tatiana said in an envious tone. "Very well. I will accept that you cannot join me in the Eiffel Tower today because of your handsome father."
"Well, tomorrow we can go for a walk together ... Tonight we already made a dinner appointment with several people," Vega said.
Tatiana finally nodded. She really had no choice.
***
After they were satisfied going up and down the Eiffel Tower, saw Gustave Eiffel's secret apartment, on the top of the tower, and took so many photos, the group finally went to the Louvre Museum. Before entering the museum, they had lunch at a small restaurant.
The Louvre Museum held a massive collection of artworks and historical items from around the world. The students enthusiastically followed Mr. Rhieu and listened to his story about various parts of the museum that were so interesting.
They were amazed to see the collection of Egyptian mummies in the museum's west wing, then various famous artworks that they had only heard about by name or seen pictures on the internet.
Many students sighed in awe when they saw Mona Lisa directly. They had no idea that the painting turned out to be small and, at first glance, unattractive.
There were far more interesting paintings on display in the various wings walls of the Louvre Museum. Everything looked very impressive. Some paintings looked so realistic, like a portrait of living humans, and some were very large, hung from floor to ceiling.
A painting depicting the inauguration of one of the French monarchs looked so impressive. All the characters on the canvas were on life-size, and their faces looked so real like photographs. Everything was very similar to the original characters. In the 3x4 meter giant painting, there were more than 100 people.
"Jeez ... I can't imagine one hundred people standing still for hours so they could be painted properly," Stu said as he watched the large painting with interest. "I think the painter is very skilled. I prefer this large painting to Monalisa. I don't understand why Monalisa can become so famous."
It was common for large museums to put fake paintings in the place of the original painting during the exhibition and keep the original artworks in a hidden location. This was the way to maintain the security of these very expensive artworks.
Marion, who was very skilled at infiltration, could find the secret place where the Mona Lisa painting was stored and steal it from there. In order not to arouse suspicion, she put a very similar in its place. Until today, the museum had not realized that the original painting had been exchanged.