Sunday, May 22, 2011

Got up finally feeling refreshed as I think we are finally caught up to the time zone change. We had a quick breakfast and went off to the Petit Palais along the Seine. The streets were largely empty as people slept in and hung out with their families and friends. Only a few scruffy looking dog walkers were out and about. Most restaurants and bars were closed too. The Petit Palais was very nice and they have an adequate, if smallish, collection. No cameras were allowed and hence no pictures which is odd because some museums do allow cameras but no flash and some don't allow any cameras at all, which begs the question of why. If anyone knows be sure to let us know - maybe we should google that.  

After the Petit Palais we went through the Place de la Concorde to the back entrance of the Louvre, which avoids almost all the crowds. It worked out very well and we bought tickets at a machine and then got inside within a few minutes. And as usual the Louvre was fantastic - for €10 each you get all the entertainment you can take before museum fatigue sets in.  We had about 4 hours and went right to the Marly and the Puget courts, and then to see the Italian sculpture section for the Winged Victory of Samothrace, Canova's Cupid and Psyche, Michelangelo's slaves  and other amazing blocks of stone cold marble that were made to look amazingly lifelike.  

After that we finally found a good baguette after being served some really average bread in a couple restaurants. We gobbled that down with some Camembert that we found at the neighborhood grocer's that smelled like 3-day old diaper when unwrapped - yummy!   (Mental picture there.) We also found some excellent (and much more reasonably priced) millesfeuilles, which made for a nice dessert.

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