A new day dawned in fair Paris and we were off to the Louvre, just on the other side of the river from where we were staying.
This old palace of the royal family dates back to the twelfth century, and was just massive. It used to have a moat around it:
This is just one tiny corner of one of its courtyards:
After King Louis XIV moved the royal family to Versailles in 1682, the palace was made into a museum. The glass pyramid was built in 1993 and houses the underground entrance to the museum.
Inside was just as amazing as outside:
We also saw it from inside the Louvre:
Inside the Louvre were more amazing paintings, and some rather bizarre ones too!
Many were larger than life.
There was even paintings of people looking at paintings in the Louvre!
And lovely old tapestries too.
There were reminders of how grand this palace would have been when the royal family lived here.
There were so many people crowded around the Mona Lisa!
We only saw a tiny portion of the collection, spending only the morning there. On our way out Brian showed us the high tech way they have for storing your things while you looked around the Louvre.
Not only could you see which locker held your stuff, but you could see which ones were empty, open it, set your code, then walk off! There was even a locking device for umbrellas!
Looking back at the front of the Louvre:
Then we walked through the rather large gardens.
We continued walking up the Champs-Élysées to that arch way in the distance (2 miles away)!
All the top shops were there, with interesting window dressings including this small cube in Tiffany’s.
These amazing steps full of crystals were in the Swarovski store:
We saw these flags (Danish) outside their consulate:
Where Brian noticed a sign saying they were having an exhibition of photos of rock icons, taken by a Danish photographer. So in we went!
It’s an early selfie, look! I can do it too! 😉
So can Kakki!
Then we arrived at the Arc de Triomphe.
See the people up on the top?
That’s 284 steps up. I amazed myself by going up them without needing to stop for a break and wasn’t even breathing heavily at the top. That’s what walking 20kms a day can do. 😉 this was the view from the top:
The cars on the roundabout down below were interesting to watch… I don’t know how they don’t collide with no marked lanes!
Then it was time to walk down.
Part way down was a room with exhibits of soldier’s uniforms from the WWII, including a NZ one:
And one from the USA!
Mike and I then wandered back to Île de la Cité while Brian and Kakki went elsewhere.
We saw these on our way back:
They were renting them out for 90 euros an hour!
This was the entry to Abercrombie & Fitch, pretty fancy and, true to form, you could smell it before you saw it 😉
This lovely old house was interesting, it turned out to be an auction house for expensive cars!
We came across this pretty little garden:
And this amazing looking bridge:
Crepes monsieur?
We looked across the Seine to the Musee d’ Orsay where we had gone the night before.
We’d made a reservation for the four of us at a Vietnamese restaurant in the Latin quarter. As we walked there we saw this:
That would not be a good name for a pub in NZ. Just saying. 😉
After we ate (the food was excellent) we walked to the French Pantheon.
Then back to the islands where we were staying. I was amused by these very low traffic lights. And yes, Mike is holding a bottle of milk. 🙂
We walked past this outdoor fish display. I guess people in Paris buy fish any time of the day or night!
I marvelled at how many people were still around Notre Dame at 10.30 at night!