Day 18, The Louvre.

I'm a day behind in my posting so this one is for yesterday. Since my daughter's arrival we've been trying to cram in at least a weeks worth of excursions in the three days she is here.

We started our day at 9:AM with a mile walk to get our coffee and breakfast. We continued our walk which took us past the Galleries Lafayette. I had to take her in there to show here the glitz and glamour and then we were off to catch a metro to the Louvre. 

 Since it is so huge, you have to pick and choose.  Sarah had the Mona Lisa on her must-see list in spite of my warning that she'd be disappointed.  (Im such a downer). We spent time looking at Italian and French paintings from the 13th to the 19th centuries and then pushed and shoved our way to the front to see the ML tucked behind reflective glass and roped off 8 feet away. In spite of its remoteness, you do get the feeling of standing in the presence of greatness. 

We wandered through Greek, Roman, Etruscan and Egyptian antiquities, then the sculptures. The Louvre's architecture is so exquisite that we became curious about its history. We ended our day there with a look at the History of the Louvre exhibit.  In the middle of our visit I experienced an embarrassing and painful moment when I missed a step while going down a set of stairs and twisted my ankle and fell to my knees on the marble landing. GEEZ, talk about one of your nightmares. But miracle of miracles, other than a bruised spirit and a jolted body, I came away with no permanent damage. 

By the end of our time in the Louvre, I could have been done for the day, but Sarah was still full of zip.  She wanted to see the glass pyramid out front and then, of course, see the Tuilerie Gardens. After that, she was determined to find a crepe, so we took the metro to the Opera Garnier (I thought she should see that, and then we went back to the Galleries Lafayette because they had a huge food hall on the top floor.  Instead of crepes she found gelato, also on her list, and we both had an amazing treat. (Mind you I'm a hair's breadth from dead by this point).   The closest metro would have required 4 transfers to get back to the apartment so we walked a ways to catch a more direct one. 

By the time we arrived back, we had logged over 18,000 steps which  is about 9 miles. Felt like 19. 

A glass of wine and I was on the road to being revived.  

There were a few artists painting from the masters.

Venus de Milo  

Michaelangelo in the Louvre

                                           

The Tuilerie Garden

The lawn mower in the Tuilleries!

I loved all the green enamel chairs.  

She had a nice view out the window at the glass pyramid in front of the Louvre.