Louvre

We decided last night that if we were going to the Louvre it'd be nice to see the Mona Lisa. And if we were going to see the Mona Lisa we would have to go early to beat the hoards of people that would surround her which means we'd never get to see her. So we we got up early and went to the Louvre. I assumed as I usually do that there would be neon signs pointing in the direction I need to go to get where I want to be. Most of the time I'm wrong. In times like that I heavily rely upon Chris to get us from lost completely to where we need to be. This one time I was right. There were signs everywhere pointing to where we might find her.

The green in the picture is proof of the neon signs pointing to her. :)

After we saw Mona we decided to walk around and see what we could see. We happened upon the Winged Victory which was a nice surprise as it's another one of those that's very popular at the Louvre.

After we saw the Winged Victory Chris asks me what I want to see next. Paintings? I say. I mean isn't that what the Louvre is full of? Duh. Well, it turns out it's full of a lot more.

We saw quite a few people painting paintings. Many of them were just beginning, but she looked almost finished.

About this time I decided that it might be nice to see Egyptian Antiquities. So we start walking.

We passed through rooms and by rooms and through them again. It turns out the Louvre is huge. Picture that and it's bigger than what you're imagining. Now what they don't tell you is that they close rooms periodically and don't notify you! So you start walking one way and oops! they decided to close this room today so you have to then find your way around that room to get where you want to go. It's all one big game. They sit in the little rooms laughing at those of us who walk through rooms 15 times thinking we're actually getting where we want to be and instead we're making circles.

Take this guy. He's given up so he's calling a cab.

We saw this girl more than once.

hmmm. . . .

We found Demeter in all the walking around (and the Venus de Milo) and then finally

Ancient Egypt!

We passed quite a lot of beautiful sculptures and art on our way but Ancient Egypt was worth all the effort.

The only problem was that we now only had an hour and a half to get through Ancient Egypt. And it's big.

We were fast as the wind and still didn't get to see all of it.

But we're going back tonight.

What we did see was breathtaking. The Louvre beats all the rest of the museums we've seen so far.

We were on a time schedule though because we had booked a wine and cheese tasting lunch.

The directions asked us to please be on time and we were the first ones there even though we got lost on the way so we got pictures of it all set up before anyone else got there. That was very exciting to me! It's the little things. . .

It was a small group and he taught us a lot about French wine.

His last bit of advice before we left was. . .

keep drinking French wine!