Paris and the Louvre
We got a comfortable start to the day – we’ve been waking up at 7AM but not getting out of the hotel til around 10AM most mornings. The weather has been superb, partly to mostly sunny with highs in the 70s F. Today we took a cab to the Louvre – we could have walked, but we’re learning to preserve the walking for the museums and between places, often taking a cab for the first stop of our daily tour. We went to the Louvre the last time we were in Paris as well – click here to see that page.
The Louvre is very large, divided into three major galleries (Denon, Sully and Richeleu, three famous men from French history). It was originally a palace but is now of course a world-famous art museum, housing La Jaconda, the Mona Lisa. We spent over four hours at the museum. In the middle we went to the underground to have lunch – there are a number of fast-food restaurants in the underground. While walking around the northern Europe galleries, we saw a woman dressed very goth with someone that looked like her father – amazing, unique, very pretty in a way. There’s also a very cool elevator to take people down from under the pyramid to the entrance level – here is a video. Below are some of the art works I took photos of (or scanned from postal cards).
After the museum, I walked on Rue de Rivoli to see if I could find my sunglasses – I failed, so I’ll have to get a new pair when I get home. However, I did get to stop at a sweets shop that sold some reasonable chocolate – I got Aviva some pastries as she doesn’t like dark chocolate.
We walked back to the hotel, stopping at the Sennelier shop at 3, Quai Voltaire, and at a little Russian shop, Peterhof at 25, Rue Bonaparte (I bought a hand-painted Napoleon miniature – well, it looks hand-painted with small brush marks, etc. – hope they didn’t mind I passed on the cossacks, though they were very nicely painted), and having dinner at a nice small cafe – we both ordered from the prix fixe menu, and my main course was interesting, a traditional au gratin potato and bacon dish.
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July 21st, 2007 by alephnaught