Day 3 in Paris: The Louvre

Day 3: Today we had our Louvre day. Last night we went to the Louvre
to take some night pics so we knew where it was and how to get there.

We bought the Paris Museum Pass so we did not have to stand in line we
walked right up to seperate line and went right in. We were hungry so
we ate at the cafeteria, the food was cheap but not that good. We
found out that you could bring your own food in, we would suggest that.

We headed to the Italian artist section so that we could see the Mona
Lisa. They kind of hid it so you can't really just go see it. After a
few detours (and potty breaks) we made it. It was in a huge room that
was full of people (all asian for some reason) the painting was not
that big, it was behind tinted glass and you couldn't get very close.
It was cool but an overall let down.

That being said we liked the sculptures the most. The different
colored marble and detail was amazing. They also had King Louis's
crown, it was like 120 carats! We saw all the biggies and took pics
but what ticked us off SO much is that they had nothing to read next
to the objects other than French. I mean most of the places we have
been have little tablets with your language that you can take thru the
room and drop off when you leave that room but there was none. A bunch
of old paintings means nothing if you have no background info.

The Louvre Palace itself was the best piece of art. It was an amazing
structure. Our favorite exhibit of all was the history of the Louvre.
When they built the pyramid and connected all the halls underground
below the courtyard in the 1980-90's they dug up the old foundations
of the orginal castle. So they kept a lot of the orginal moat and made
it an exhibit. Then there are walkthroughs that have models of how it
went from being a small fort to at one time being the largest building
in the world.

We left the Louvre and went to find toothpaste and razors. Sounds easy
but it wasn't. After eating dinner (they called the skinny thing I got
a steak) we walked up the Champs-Elyses went into a few pharmacies
before finding what we needed. Then we went to the grocery store by
our hotel and figured out that we should have been shopping there the
whole time, cheap.

That was about it. We are having a great time. Tiff is having a little
morning sickness (just queasy) so we have been taking it easy and
keeping crackers and sprite with us.

M&T