A Very LARGE Day in Paris!

We were busy travelers today--we left our apartment at about 9:30 a.m. and returned about 11:00 p.m!

Our first stop was the St. Quentin indoor market, I had read that it was one of Paris' premier indoor markets.  It was just O.K.,  but we enjoyed looking around and talking to the friendly shop keepers.

The flower shop--why do flowers always look prettier in Paris?

The yummy pastry shop:

The French love their fish.  Matt has been checking the price of salmon, I'm a little worried he's going to send us a bill for the salmon he shared with us this summer!

Poulet (chicken) hanging, the man in this shop was singing away in a loud voice!

Poulet with feathers still on!

Lapin (rabbit), must be fresh, as it's still in it's coat!

We saw this funny sign in front of a cheese shop, the middle line says: "We speak English, take home some nasty cheese!" David did buy some goat cheese, and we tried it tonight!  It's strong, to say the least!   The nice shopkeeper said he could vacuum pack some for us, we might just stop by there on our way home and get some!  Hmmmm, who would we share it with????

Our plan for the afternoon was to explore the Montmarte area, so we hopped on the Metro and as soon as we came out of the station, this is what we saw:


Moulin Rouge:

We walked explored the charming streets, I liked this ivy covered building:

A narrow passageway--Montmarte is the highest point in Paris, so there are several steep streets:

We came across this charming guy playing the accordion by a sidewalk cafe--he really hammed it up for us!

David tried to give him a tip--but he wouldn't take it:

More beautiful flowers:

SHOES--Leopard AND red-doesn't get much cooler than that!  Wish I would have at least tried them on---they are soooo "me"!  But the lady shopkeeper yelled at me for taking a picture.....

Cheese, cheese and more cheese!

I love these:

It was Matt's birthday--so the day was all his to plan!  He chose to have lunch at Cafe de 2 Moulins, as this was the setting for one of his most favorite movies ever, Amelie.  It is a wonderful movie!

Dave and Matt, enjoying a beverage while we were waiting for a table, the cafe was VERY busy!

Matt with the menu, picture of Amelie on the front--he is one happy birthday guy!

We are pretty happy parents, too!

We all ordered the Bouef  Bourguignon , David had a salad as a starter, I think he's stuck on warm goat cheese toast:

Here's our boeuf bourguignon, it was very good:

Matt enjoying his birthday dessert, a peach tartin.  It was delicious!

Here I am with my favorite son on his birthday!

By now it was about 3 pm, and still raining!  No worries, as our destination for the afternoon and evening was the Louvre.  It's open till 9:30 on Fridays, and we sure took advantage of that!

A quick Metro ride again, and of course the first stop was a restroom.  I followed the signs to this lovely place, where I paid almost $2 for the privilege of using colored TP!  FYI--my lovely stall was stocked with hot pink!

They also sold TP in many, many different designs, including soduko, Euro bills, and these two funny designs.  I didn't buy any!

Our first view of the amazing I.M. Pei glass pyramid, I love the contrast of old and new:

Matt was blown away by the ceilings, and soon declared he was "ceilinged out" and was tired of looking up!  There are beautiful ceilings in almost every room, all different:

A nice statue on the way to the Denon Wing and Mona Lisa.  This is Mars and Venus:

A beautiful sarcophagus, about 3rd century A.D.  I love the lion detail:

Corner detail in another beautiful ceiling:

Venus de Milo!  I've been to the Louvre twice before, but have somehow missed her.  Matt found it for me:

I think she is absolutely stunning:

Socrates!

Aristotle!

We came to the room with Mona Lisa--it actually wasn't too bad!  There was a small crowd right in front, but nothing like when David & I went last year, or in April with my Mom & Dad.  We just patiently shuffled our way to the front for our photo op.  Not sure why we do this--it's kind of silly, I know.

Here we are with Mona Lisa, so not my most flattering photo:

The area that Matt most wanted to explore was the Egyptian Antiquities.  David and I were really looking forward to it, as we didn't get to it on our last visit.
When we first came into that wing, we were greeted by this large sphinx, from about 925 B.C.  We thought that was old--until we wandered through the rest of that wing!

This is a wooden carving of a barge, from about 1800-2000 Before Christ!

Tiny carved stone frogs, just for my friend Deb!  From about 1500 B.C.

More wooden carving, 1900-200 B.C.

Bronze cats--about 600 B.C.

These are wine containers, from about 3100-2700 BEFORE CHRIST! Wow--we were just blown away by the Egyptian antiquities-we all took hundreds of pictures, it was absolutely fascinating!

I thought this was interesting, it's a scribes palette, and you can see the ink and his brushes.  About 1555-1060 B.C:

This was labeled as "femme aux bras articules", it was the only female figure I noticed with a "crown".

By now we were suffering from sensory overload--it was just hard to imagine we were seeing treasures this old.  It was our favorite area of the Louvre!

We exited into the Greek statue area, here are a few of my favorites:

Hercules, 11th c. B.C.

,

Pan, the faun.  11th c. A.D., Greek

The beautiful Three Graces, 11c B.C. Rome:

This might have been my very favorite, Dionysis with Child, 1-11th c. A.D., Italian.  I love the contrast between his strength and manliness and his tenderness as he gazes into the child's eyes.  It was breathtaking: 

We were getting a little tired, but only had about 2 hours till closing.  On to Napoleon III Apartments!

Matt was amazed by the elegance and over the top decoration.  I won't post a bunch of pictures, as I posted several when I was at the Louvre this past April with my parents.  I'll just say it is over-the-top gorgeous and ostentatious!  There is room after room like this:

I know I said I wouldn't post a lot of pictures, but if anyone reading this wants some Christmas hints, I'd really like this:

Oh, OK!!  If you don't think I deserve a crown, how about a simple diamond broach?

After our tour of the apartments we still had an hour until the museum closed.  We were dog-tired, but I somehow got a second wind--all of a sudden my feet didn't hurt, and climbing all those hundreds and hundreds of stairs seemed so much easier.  It was very strange! 

There was one more area that Matt had wanted to see, a temporary exhibit of Islamic art.  We found our way to the correct wing (by the way, Matt is a GREAT navigator, we didn't get lost in the Louvre once!).  The exhibit was set up beautifully, and I'm sure it was very interesting, but we were all so overwhelmed that we just cruised through it.  We were just d-o-n-e!

We hopped on the Metro, which is actually connected to the Louvre.  A quick line change, and we were back in our neighborhood.  We all agreed we were just too darn tired to cook!  We decided to have a late dinner at the same little cafe we ate at our first night, as the food was excellent.

We were sooo happy to sit down.  Our nice waiter brought us the menu written on a chalkboard, and we each made our choice. 

Matt had a pork chop, the biggest pork chop I have ever seen!  He said it was wonderful, and the sauce was very, very good.  I did taste the mashed potatoes--they were creamy and rich:

David ordered the same salad as the first night, but instead of duck confit it had chicken.  I tell ya, he's stuck on warm goat cheese on toast:

I chose a salad also, one with very thinly sliced ham--more like prosciutto, but smoky.  The large "crouton" had a nutty cheese melted on the top.  The mix of greens was great, and the mustard vinaigrette was perfect.  The whole salad was topped with lots of pine nuts.  It was scrumptious!

We didn't order dessert, but we were still within the "rules of Paris" because we had some for lunch!  Besides, we were all too tired to eat dessert--now THAT'S tired!

A nice 1 block stroll to our cute little apartment, and we all fell into bed!  14 hours on the go in Paris--might be a new record for these Lundburys!

Tomorrow in Paris:  Still undecided, depends on the weather.  Rain, Rain go away!!