Paris: Part Deux

Let the record show, I wrote this entry almost two weeks ago and it disappeared. I have reason to believe the housekeeping guy in Germany deleted it....or the old Dell crashed like it did once every day and I forgot to save it. Either way I'm back aaaaand (drumroll please) I'm writing to you live from my new MacBook Pro. Get ready for some serious blog time people. I love this thing!

Alright, where were we? Right, Paris. For the next part of our trip, Brad and I decided to spoil ourselves just a tad and get a room at The Banke Hotel near the Opera Palais. It was beautiful inside and out and the staff couldn't have been more friendly.

After the bags were settled in our room we took a look at our trusty map (which was already quite worn by this point) and set off in search of the Louvre. Fortunately, the Louvre is about the size of a small city so it wasn't difficult to find. No, really - it's huge.

The line looked somewhat intimidating but it moved quickly and I, of course found ways to keep us entertained. Time to get crafty with the camera.

It was early in the day and we thought our best bet would be to make a bee line for the Mona Lisa before it got too crazy. On the way, we passed the Winged Victory of Samothrace which is quite stunning.

And then, there She was. THE Mona Lisa. In all her tiny glory. People had told me it was small...they weren't kidding. We're talking 30 inches by 2o inches small (that's 77cm x 53 cm for all of my European friends). As my sister-in-law would say - she's very schmaal.

And last on the "must see" list was Venus de Milo. Taaa daaaa.

After these three pieces had been checked off of our list, we spent the next couple of hours wandering through the maze of Egyptian art. This was our favorite part.

When our stomachs began talking to us, we started looking for an exit. And 30 minutes later, we found one. We had hoped to find another little place to get a sandwich and baguette to enjoy in the park but ended up at a corner cafe that provided ample people watching. We won't discuss the fact that our beverages were an astounding 10 euro each. Ouch.

Following lunch we spent the afternoon strolling the Champs-Elysees towards the Arc de Triomphe. A little shopping and a lot of pictures.

We found the below statue strange. Right there in the middle of the Champs - a statue of what I assume was a god covered with cherubs...but none of them had heads. Hmmmm.

But we made it and harassed yet another person to take our picture. You can forget about walking across that street behind us to get to the Arc; people seem to loose all sense of traffic laws and it's a free for all. Pedestrians beware. Take the underground route instead.

While walking around the Arc, the wind picked up and dark clouds rolled in. By this point our feet had had enough (and by "our" I mean "mine") so we ended the day with a fantastic dinner at a nearby brasserie before calling it a night.

It had been another amazing day in Paris but the following day would be our best yet...