Paris II

The Louvre is boring. There, I said it. But at least they let you take pictures! I am not all that into classical art, so I didn't expect to totally love it. But even Amanda said it's overrated.

We got up Wednesday morning and went straight from our apartment to the Louvre (after some pain au chocolat from the local bakery, yum!). The sun was actually out! It was a nice walk over and it only took about 5 minutes! Even though I was bored with most of the art,the building itself is unbelievably beautiful (it used to be a palace) and the ceilings are absolutely incredible:Venus de Milo:Winged Victory:Sorry, but the Mona Lisa was totally lame. It is tiny and there are a billion people trying to see it.
The one part of the Louvre I liked was their African art:Cornholio!!!"Dum-dum, you give me gum-gum":

The Tuilleries (the park between the Louvre and l'Orangerie):

View of the Eiffel Tower from there:After the Louvre, we went to the Musee de l'Orangerie. I liked this one much better than the Louvre. They have Monet's Water Lillies paintings displayed in natural light and tons of more modern art as well. I had fun at this one and I highly recommend it.

Water Lillies:

Other Orangerie Art:

This one reminds me of the pig I saw in the store window in Alcala: Then we walked over to the Champs Elysees, another thing in Paris that is overrated. It's this ritzy shopping area, supposedly like the best in the world, right? And I am not a shopper. And there is a Nike store and a Gap and some other American stores alongside the frou-frou ones like Luis Vuitton. I might as well be back in Castle Rock at the outlet mall, right?

But at the end of the Champs-Elysees is the Arc de Triomphe. That was pretty cool to see!After the Champs-Elysees, we took the Metro back to our apartment to get ready for dinner. Then we went over to the Rue Cler area to have dinner. Dinner that night was easily the best dinner we had in Europe. It was incredible.Foie Gras! Yum:Dessert:This is one of my favorite pictures of my mom. She looks so young and pretty and happy!After dinner, we walked over the the Eiffel Tower. It is HUGE! Even bigger than I expected. We got to see the light show they do every hour and it was so beautiful.

Then we headed home and went to bed. What a fabulous and full day in Paris!