Paris Day 2

 Well, another busy day. It got really hot by Parisian standards, but by Austin, TX standards it wasn't that bad. We got up late, pretty much the usual by now, and got ready for breakfast. We walked 10 min to Laduree on Bonaparte. A friend at work had hyped the French toast (something lost toast I believe) so I was a little worried... but I knew the girls would at least enjoy it. We ordered hot chocolate (chocolat chaud), espresso (cafe), and eggs as well as French toasts. We were not disappointed. The hot chocolate came in individual silver kettles with monogrammed L's on the hot pads. The espresso and eggs were great and the French toast? Just to die for.

  Here's Madison in front of the best French toast we all have ever had. Thanks for the recommendation Dave.

 We then make our way back to the Louvre to try and make a bigger dent.

 Evidently Bailley has grown, because she's touching the top of I. M. Pei's largest pyramid. With our museum pass, we go right in. The art is incredible, but just as with the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel, the building itself is amazing.

  Here's one of the ceiling in one of the rooms where everyone is looking at the art on the walls. The art on the walls was only a portion of the story.

 One of the main hallways of paintings.

 This is out of order, but another building shot of the staircases and archways when we went from the paintings to the exhibits of Napoleon's apartment.

  It wasn't too painfully crowded, so we made our way to the main attraction: the Mona Lisa by Leonardo di Vinci. It is quite exquisite. but as everyone noted, it's smaller than we expected. We also all thought that there were numerous other paintings that we thought were as impressive in our eyes... and that's nothing to take away from the Mona Lisa, but rather to indicate how many wonderful works are in the Louvre.
 Bailley wanted to see the Napoleon apartments exhibit, and we decided that would be it for the day at the Louvre.

 Here is Napoleon's dining room. All of his rooms, the family parlor, etc. were like this. Opulence on top of opulence with a little extra opulence. Cindy thought it wasn't very impressive. It was not my style nor what I would consider beautiful, but the sheer over-the-top-ness of it all was very impressive to me.

 After attacking the Louvre for a few hours, as we were walking back to the apartment, we stopped at the supermarket to mainly get water. Man-o-man, I could of just stayed there. They're cheese selection was crazy. And then around the corner was ham/salami and then the wines... I ended up getting an assorted cheese plate with some brie thrown in for good measure, a baguette, and a bottle of wine.

  Here's me at lunch with my other cheese loving buddy. A couple of the cheeses I'm going to have to write down to remember... unfortunately these are unpasteurized soft cheeses that I bet I cannot even get in the US. Why can't we make cheese like this? Clearly someone wants to keep the US low on the cheese ladder.

 After lunch, we all rested a little, then headed back out for Notre Dame.
 I knew we would be passing Pont des Arts (a bridge across the Seine) so I grabbed my surprise for Cindy.

 Pont des Arts is one of the bridges where lovers write on locks and attach them. I had bought a small lock, written our initials and 'love' and 'forever' on the lock. We got to the bridge and I surprised her with it. The small silver lock with 'love' on it is ours.

 I locked it onto the fence and threw the key into the river Seine. A fun stop and I think Cindy was surprised.
 We made our way to Notre Dame.

 And there's a nice shot of it. What a beautiful church. The 'right' (what I would call the rear, side) window in the above picture,

 is this window only from the inside. A mass was occurring as we toured the church which made it even more special. The sights, smells, and sounds were just incredible.

 Tomorrow starts our last week of vacation. Hmmm... not sure I'm all that happy thinking about this ending just yet.

Bonne nuit!