Louvre

We had a good lie-in in the morning, partly due to the heat and partly due to the fact that Will sleeps on the floor of a dark cupboard! After a yummy omelette for breakfast, we found a nearby Metro at the Place de Republique and headed towards the La Fayette in the hopes of buying a new digital camera. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find a shop open that sold electronics so we walked down towards the Obelisk in the Place de la Concorde. On the way we caught the end of a parade celebrating Bastille Day.



The Place de la Concorde was cordoned off and we had to wait to get in, but when we did we headed across an unusually traffic free Place to a small park area where we bought some salami sandwiches and sat on the grass while Will had a good run around. After lunch, we walked along the Quai Francois Mitterrand towards Le musée du Louvre . We walked down to and along the waterfront through a tunnel that smelt of old urine. At that point we decided it would be better walking up by the road.


We walked around the back of the Louvre and found a lovely fountain to put our feet in to cool off. The sheer scale of the buildings is more impressive than in the photos we had seen. We walked through a large archway into the main Jardin du Carrousel with the big glass pyramid (the entrance to the Louvre). We went in and were in luck, at last! Because it was Bastille Day, the Louvre was free!



We took a walk around the history of the Louvre and the medieval foundations before heading upstairs to the Greek Antiquities. We saw heaps of statues, the most notable ones being the Venus de Milo and the Winged Victory of Samothrace. We walked around the Galerie d’Apollon and on to the gallery of Large Format French Paintings. It was here where we discovered the Mona Lisa surrounded by her massive audience.



We had barely scratched the surface of the Louvre in the half day we had spent in there but it was time for us to head back home again. Will had not had a sleep all day and we decided to take him home for one before we headed out to the fireworks. We stopped for a Frappuccino (a sort of iced coffee) at Starbucks then caught the Metro home.



We had dinner and a bottle and a half of wine between us before we left for Champ de Mars. We were a wee bit late and we caught the Metro to Invalides to catch a connecting journey to Champ de Mars but it was blocked off so we walked up to the surface and found a great spot to watch the display. Will really enjoyed the ‘sirewox’ and after half an hour, we took a cramped Metro ride back home getting in the door just before midnight.