Day 2 in Paris started a little later than originally planned, I guess the long hours on the previous day got to us a bit, so we didn't get going properly until around 9:30. After looking through the Photos from the previous day I decided that we weren't taking anywhere near enough photos, so we set out to rectify that quick smart. We headed off in the general direction of the Lourve, stopping at pretty much anything to take photos, we also stopped in a Cafe to have a coffee (sorry cafe creme ;-)) and watch the parisians make a mokery of the road rules for a while.
The architecture in Paris is simply amazing, it doesn't matter wher you go or what you're looking at, it always seems to be worth looking at, we have also noticed that the Parisians in general, get up late, go to work late, always make time to sit down and have a coffee, always make time for lunch, and eat dinner late before retiring late, seems like quite a good lifestyle to me, I'm not really sure how or when they keep the country running, but it seems to be doing just fine from the outside looking in.
Anyway, all of our coffee drinking and photo taking meant that we didn't arrive at the Lourve until around 11:30am, at which point we discovered the longest line I have ever seen, or didn't see as it turned out, because the end of the line was completely out of sight from where we were standing, so we trundled off to the end of the line and got ripped off to the tune of 10 Euros by "Jumbo Jumbo" along the way, so yes it was a long walk.
The line actually moved very quickly so about 30mins after joining the line we were in the Lourve, and considering my estimate when spotting the line was 3 hours, we were pretty happyabout that.
We grabbed the map of the Museum and picked a direction. If like Carol and myself, you have never been to the lourve, there are two things to remember, 1 - it's very, very big and 2 - you'll need more than 1 day to have a good look around, and did I mention that it's BIG!!
Put simply the place is amazing, the collection of historical artefacts is never ending, and although some is more intersting to brain dead sloths like myself, there is plenty that is interesting even if you're not a history buff, and if all else fails you can watch the Americans compare everything to something in America and of course it's better in America.
We did the tourist thing and had a look at the Mona Lisa, from about 20 feet away and behind about 100 people, it is a bit of a pity that there isn't a better organised line to see the old girl, as you have to be keen enough to tread on some small children and poke the odd granny in the eye if you want to get closer, well that or get out of bed before the Parisians, which shouldn't be difficult really.....but I digress.
We also had a look at more Egyptian, Greek and early european artifacts than I would have imagined possible, and of course the building itself is stunning, not to mention that they've been using the building (or parts of it anyway) as a museum since the 1800's (I'm pretty sure that's what I read somewhere anyway).
When we got tired of the Lourve (it's physically exhausting, did I mention it's BIG), we headed off to find Notre Dame, it was quite a bit further away from the Lourve than we expected, since we we're already buggered from the Lourve it would have been nice if it was closer, but we made it anyway, predictably there was another line, and it was moving quite slowly so we didn't go in, but amused ourselves watching people pretend to be Quasimodo.
So we took some piccies and headed towards our hotel, stopped at a pub and drank 2 pints each while we watched the final 40k's of the Tour d France for the day, this resulted in getting lost on the way back to the hotel as our sense of direction may have been impared, bit we eventually found our way home.
I've posted quite a few photos from the day as there were heaps, you'll notice a few where Carol is playing with the new Camera, making panorama's andeven one where she told it to make up a water colour.
Paris Day 2 - The Lourve and Paris pictures
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