Day 2: the Louvre

*first of all, I added some more pictures and text to day one, if you had viewed it before in it's incomplete state, you might want to look at it again.  Also, if you're my friend on Facebook, sorry for the repetition.

I love that we walked most places.  You truly get a feel for a city by walking.  We occasionally took the Metro, but for the most part we walked.  So, Thursday morning we got up and walked to the Louvre.  On our way, we stopped at a creperie.  I had a crepe with Nutella, and Dallin and Rick got omelets.  So delicious.  The above scene is just a picture to give you a feel for walking about Paris.

The Louvre.  The pyramid was built to create an entrance that would not detract from the original palace.  Maybe all of you already knew this, but I did not realize that the Louvre was orginally built as a palace, a very LARGE palac, but then again, they all seemed to be very large. 

In the 12th century, there was a fortress, or castle on this site, and you are actually able to walk around in the original moat, which is what Dallin and I are doing in the picture above.

Here's a replica of the original building on the site of the Louvre.

And then, things got a little more extravagant.  In the 14th century it was converted into a residence, and was added on multiple times.  The artwork housed there is truly amazing, but the building itself is incredible.  It is SO big, and SO overwhelming.  Everywhere, every room, extravagance.  It was hard for me to take at times.

This is coming up onto the first huge crowd we saw.  You could always tell when there was something REALLY famous, from the flocks of people around it.

 

The Venus de Milo.  Pretty cool.  We got used to seeing naked people.  I warned Dallin before we went that we would see a lot of nudity.  We did, but luckily just in artwork : ).

This boy wrestling a goose was one of Dallin's favorite things at the Louvre.

There were displays from ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia.  I mean, they have everything at this place.  These tablets were cool.

I was impressed with the preservation of color in this.  It's like 4000 years old or something.

I liked the ancient Egyptian jewelry, and these carved spoons were cool.

Ramses

The book of the dead

Just look at this room.  Extravagance.

Rick wanted to capture our faces as we first walked into a room, so he ran ahead and snapped this one of us in awe.

Another crowd, the biggest one.  Can you see why?  It's the Mona Lisa.

On the opposite wall is "the Wedding Feast".  I thought it was pretty cool too.

 There she is.  I had been warned it was small.  It is, and you can't get very close to it.

 Looking back at all the people looking at the Mona Lisa.  Oh, wait, no they aren't.  They are looking at their phones and cameras while they take a picture of the Mona Lisa.  Too funny.

Some crown jewels.

Napolean III's apartment, in the Louvre.  Again, extravagent.

More of Napoleon III's apartment.

We walked through the Tuilleries, the gardens outside of the Louvre.  They were beautiful, but I didn't put any of the pictures, because it was overcast, and they don't do it justice, and I have to make choices, people.  The next stop was the Musee de l'Orangerie.  On display in this museum are several of Monet's water lilies.  They were so great to see in person.  When you stand right next to them, they don't look like much, but walk to the other side of the room, and they are lovely.  How do you do that?  We were not allowed to take pictures at this museum, but the woman sitting at the doorway said we could take one, from the doorway.  I thought that was kind of strange, but oh well...

 Arc de Triomphe.  We decided to walk down the Champs Elysees.  Again, I'm so glad that we did.  It was very commercial, and looked a lot more like an American city, with all the stores.  I didn't shop.  The company I was with was not interested in shopping.  They told me I could go in anywhere that I wanted, but I was ok not to.

 More climbing, climbing, climbing.  Here's a look down the center of the spiral staircase we took to the top of the Arc.

 I'm so glad we have this picture.  It's the only one we took with all three of us.  It was unfortunate that is was so foggy the day we were at the top of the Arc, but it was still very cool.  Look closely, and you can see the Eiffel Tower in the background.

 We took the Metro home from the Arc, and stopped for dinner on the way back to the hotel.  We ordered Escargot, and I ate one.  It was fine, not as revolting as I worried it would be, but the texture was still kind of weird for me, and I didn't eat another one.  Dallin and Rick liked it so much they ordered it on another evening.  I had salmon and creamed spinach.  Dallin had duck confit, which I tried, and it was delicious!!  Rick had some stuffed vegetables.  Also, we ordered some lovely chocolate cake for dessert.  Yum!

A view of the River Seine at night, with Notre Dame in the background.  So pretty.