The Louvre with a few thousand close friends (Wed July 11)

After our day of marathon touring yesterday we were slow getting started but arrived in time to meet our guide for our personal tour of the Louvre.  Since we knew most of the signs are in French, it's really crowded, and it's the largest museum in the world, it seemed worthwhile to invest in someone with some inside info.  Our guide, Cerese, was a very pleasant British lady who had done graduate work in Art History and was great with the boys.  She was worth every Euro cent.

The itty-bitty apartment elevator.

Getting out of the apartment.  We thought about leaving the kids locked
 up for the day, but decided to take them.

The Louvre is literally two blocks from our apartment.  It takes longer to get across the plaza to the entrance than it does to reach the thing itself.  It is a mammoth complex, taking up the equivalent of several city blocks.

The famous glass pyramid entrance in the central plaza (added about 20
years ago).

A couple thousand people in line to get in.  We have a Paris Museum pass
that saves you money on admission and allows you to skip the line.  :)

French History for Dummies in 10 minutes.  We all learned something.

In the apartments of Napoleon III's Finance Minister.  The Ministry of Finance occupied
portions of the complex well into this century, but that has now been taken over by the museum.

The ceiling Scott is gaping up at. 

Napolean I's itty bitty throne. (Don't want to be dwarfed
by your own throne).

When the glass pyramid was built the foundations of the medieval Louvre (razed by
King Francois I in 1546) were uncovered and are in great condition.  They were excavated
and enclosed in an archaeological crypt (similar to the one outside Notre Dame) and
this is now a part of the museum itself.  We are standing in what used to be the moat. 

This concluded the sane portion of our tour.  Every tourist in Paris was in the Louvre that day and they actually stopped letting people in the afternoon.   Our guide said "it is really heaving in here today" (heaving apparently is the British word for crowded!).  All of these people go to see the same dozen things:  Venus de Milo, Winged Victory of Samothrace, Mona Lisa, etc.

Venus d'Milo

Winged Victory--from a distance!

The Coronation of Napoleon

The Mona Lisa (or Mona Julie maybe!)

When we finished with our two hour tour we grabbed some lunch and then headed out of that madhouse.  We had planned to do this anyway.  The museum is open till almost 10pm Friday nights and the big-bus tour groups are long gone by then--hopefully it will be better the second go around.  Also, the Museum Pass lets you come and go whenever you want (if you ever go to Paris you would be crazy not to get one.)

We went back to the apartment and took a nap and then when to a French magic show in the Marais district (we discovered in a "Paris with Kids" book).  It was entirely in French but making things disappear and pushing coins thorough a table are pretty much the same in any language.  There were only about 20 people there, including a couple from Birmingham, Alabama.

In the square after the magic show.
A couple embraces in the back
ground.  

Another spontaneous embrace--these however are
usually punctuated by a body slam.

We grabbed some more groceries and headed home.  It was easier to eat in and everyone was beat.  We had planned to go out to the Eifel Tower or Sacre Coeur after dinner but no one wanted to leave.  Everyone was in bed reading or playing on their gizmo by 8pm--what a bunch of weenies we are!

At the French Supermarket.  A cultural experience in itself.

Logan looking very French with his baguette.

"Haute Cusine" at Chez Bolton.

Hopefully we will arise early and refreshed since we have a big day planned for tomorrow.  Thanks for tagging along!