The Louvre

This morning, we got up early to get to the Louvre before the crowds. It was well worth the effort, since we were able to see the main attractions in just a few hours and didn't have to beat through the hordes of tourists (mostly Japanese) taking photographs of everything in the no photograph zones! We saw the Mona Lisa, of course, and the Venus de Milo. The Renaissance paintings and sculptures were our favorite exhibits. We decided not to spend a lot of time in some of the areas that held period artifacts, since we had all been to other Museums with similar artifacts. The Mona Lisa was not as interesting as the other Da Vinci works on display, since you could not get close enough to really appreciate it. Some of the large masterpieces, such as the Coronation of Napoleon, were incredible (approx 15ft x 20ft).

After seeing what we wanted to see in the Louvre, we had lunch at an outdoor cafe near the gardens, then went in search of more Chocolatiers. We found 3 more and sampled chocolates from each--yum! Once we got our chocolate fix, we went on the Ferris Wheel outside the Louvre for yet another spectacular view of the city.

Because we got such an early start, we had time to go the La Sainte-Chapelle, a church with the most incredible stained glass windows (over 1000 scenes depicted) as well as the infamous "shoosh"-ing man who enforces the silence rule by shooshing everyone loudly in French. Unfortunately, the shooshing man did not make his appearance until we were nearly ready to leave, and even then, he only managed to get the hordes of tourists quiet for one second! Sometimes, I'm not sure why all the museums and attractions even bother with the no photographs, no talking, no cell phones, no food, and no pets signs. I saw people breaking every one of these rules with no apparent consequences. For those of you reading this who think I'm being unfair to the illiterate, the signs were all in pictures as well as written in several languages.

Enough rambling--tomorrow is the first day of our road trip around the country. We will start with a trip to Versailles. I also apologize for not posting pictures yet, but the internet connection here has been spotty at best. I hope to get some up as soon as possible!

:-) Stacy