GB: Paris Day Five: Louvre: Photo Set 3

Here's a nice view of the courtyard from inside the museum. It was windy out today, and you can see the wind blowing the water in the fountain.

This next picture is a snapshot of a ceiling in one of the rooms. I actually thought that the ceilings in most of the rooms were cooler than the art in them. Very three dimensional and many different styles room to room.

There was a smaller cattle herd to get to the Venus de Milo, but the crowd was small. I was disappointed that the gift shop didn't sell a gummy Venus de Milo, and also that no one at the gift shop watched The Simpsons.

We wandered around the Louvre for a while and found a cool medieval section in the basement that had a model of what the building looked like around 1100AD and had stones from the original structure. It would've been cool to learn more about all the medieval stuff, but only about half the signs in the Louvre are in English and none of the things we wanted to know more about were in that half.

GB: Paris Day Five: Louvre: Photo Set 2

We had to shove a lot of children and elderly, but we got close enough to take a few pictures of the Mona Lisa. Her eyes do follow you, but other than that it just seemed like a nice portrait.

AS liked this painting of dogs. It is literally six feet from the Mona Lisa in the same room and was a ghost town.

GB: Paris Day Five: Louvre: Photo Set 1

Today we had lunch with one of AS's old friends from summer camp who lives in the same apartment building a few floors up. She and her roommate are both French but speak English too. It marked the first time all week we had a conversation with anyone who wasn't a waiter, which was refreshing. They cooked salmon and AS was too polite to turn it down even though she doesn't like fish. It was good, though I doubt I'll ever see her eat fish again.

After lunch we walked to the Louvre. We had bought our tickets ahead of time so we were able to stroll in and avoid the line. Here's a view from under the glass pyramid. Once you're inside there are signs everywhere pointing you in the direction of the Mona Lisa, but if you can't read then you can just follow the cattle herd that slowly ambles from the front door up some steps and down a hall to get to the painting. I took three snapshots of the journey. It really felt like we were being corralled along. In the last shot you can see the Mona Lisa in the distance.

GB: Paris Day Four: Death March 2: The Re-Deathening: Photo Set 7

These massive doors are pretty cool. They've got tiny versions of all of Rodin's sculptures on them. AS found out that they're supposed to be the doors to the last circle of hell in Dante's Inferno, the ones that say Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here. Not to be confused, of course, with the sign above the audience doors at The Daily Show which reads Abandon News All Ye Who Enter Here.

AS tells me this sculpture of three men is also famous. I believe I said "Look there's the Eiffel Tower!"

Here's one more snapshot of us in the main courtyard and then a clean shot of the museum and the weird giant silver sculptures.

After a long day of walking we stopped at the cheese shop and picked up a new cheese to have with a baguette for dinner. We got a hard cheese this time that's less smelly than the cheese we bought on Sunday. I would compare it to a stronger parmesan with a hint of smelliness. Delicious.

Tomorrow we tackle the Louvre, where I understand if we don't crack at least one of DaVinci's codes we get our Euros back.

GB: Paris Day Four: Death March 2: The Re-Deathening: Photo Set 6

Here is what I assume is a self-sculpture of Rodin.

You can tell by the next photo how close the Rodin Museum is to the Hotel des Invalides. You can also see the tip of the Eiffel Tower in the background. Under the tarp at the bottom of the photo, a worker is cleaning one of the sculptures.

These three sculptures were hidden in the woods. They're all the same form: one nude, one without a head or hands, and one clothed.

There was a cool building that showed a lot of things that were half sculpted. The white stone head is the same guy (Victor Hugo oddly enough) carved several times. Behind this building is the completed statue in bronze.

GB: Paris Day Four: Death March 2: The Re-Deathening: Photo Set 5

Later in the afternoon we walked over to the Rodin Museum to take in some sculptures. There's a museum section indoors and a garden section outdoors. We stuck to the garden.

AS indulged herself in our second rose garden of the day before we saw The Thinker. What is he thinking you ask? Probably "Boy don't I look artsy all backlit by the sun?" Also, enjoy a side view.

AS taught me that there are only two authentic Rodin Thinker sculptures in the world, one here and one at Columbia in New York. Now we've finally seen both!

The garden here was also very beautiful. Some sculptures were in the open by well-kept hedges and some were hidden among trees.

GB: Paris Day Four: Death March 2: The Re-Deathening: Photo Set 4

As promised, here are another whale shot, an overhead view from the second floor. The skeleton of the Right Whale had all it's baleen in its mouth.

Floor two had a few dinosaur skeleton. AS later scoffed that the dinosaurs were mounted using the outdated tail-on-the-floor method. France is such a backwards country!

This alligator looking thing was 15 feet long and pretty ferocious looking. Almost as exciting as the Charnia Masoni from the Charnwood Forrest.

Across the street from the museum was a mosque were we sat and enjoyed some tea and pastries. It was a very relaxing courtyard and the sparrows only started swooping at our crumpets toward the end of our time there.

After tea we trekked back toward the apartment to rest our feet before heading out again. We grabbed lunch at a cafe on the way. AS had a steak and I tried the bouef bourguignon. Both meals were delicious and neither of them got photographed.