Paris

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The Louvre Museum is huge on the outside, and even bigger on the inside, and our first adventure of the day. We have prebooked tickets to avoid the queues. When we arrive it takes us some time to find where to pick up the tickets, it is from a seedy looking bloke lurking in the shade smoking Guiloises, but he was as good as his word. Then through security and we are in. Andy and I agree to meet at the coffee shop near the entrance in 2:30 hours. Much easier than staying together.

The Louvre was originally a defensive fortress and was once the main residences of French kings. It became a museum in 1793 and now exhibits over 73,000 sq.m of artworks. There are around 35,00 artworks on display.

The floors are labelled -2, -1, 0, 1 and 2 and then there are three main entrance, Denon, Sully and Richelie. Once you work which side you are on makes it a bit easier to follow the maps. Floor -2 is the entrance hall and visitors amenities so no need to worry about that. Floor -1 is where we actually entered. Amazing displays of statues from France (1600 - 1700) and Europe (600 - 1600) set out really well. The original foundations of the building can also be seen here.

Floor 0 had Roman, Greece etc antiquities seemingly going on forever. Then floor 1 where the Mona Lisa is. The ornate furniture and tapestries and carpets from the when the French kings lived in the palace are amazing. Then on to fight the crowd trying to glimps the Mona Lisa. Managed to get a look at her. Not possible to see it properly though, then down to meet Andy for a break.

After some lunch back to finish looking at Floor 1 and to see Floor 2. On Floor 2 got to see uninterrupted views paintings by Renoir, Degas, Monet amongst others. There were also huge paint of battlescenes taking up whole walls. Very impressive.

From here we went for a walk through the Tuileries Gardens which are lovely and again huge. Then on to walk down Av. de Champs-Elysses towards Arc de Triomphe. Andy had a look for a new wallet in some of the shops but no success in finding something he liked.

More stairs, only about 225 to climb to the top of the Arc de Triomphe but well worth the view, probably better than the Eiffel Tower even!!. The Arc is key place of major national events. Napolean wanted this in 1806 and it was inaugurated in 1836 by French king, Louis-Philippe who dedicated it to the armies of the Revolution and Empire. The unknown soldier was buried at the base of the arch in 1921 and the flame of remembrance is rekindled every day at 18:30.

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