Day 6 in Paris

We got up really really really early today to go to the Louvre, since the 1st Sunday of each month, most all Paris museums are free. The last couple of days here were sunny and pleasantly warm, but forecast said rain today and BOY did we feel it! Right when we got out of the hotel, it was automatically 20 degrees colder than inside! Freezing weather! The walk to the Louvre warmed us up as we were hurrying along, but it did start raining halfway through the day, on and off, with sunshine and stormy clouds doing a sort of tango-dance, vying for spotlight.
We stopped by Laduree for a chocolate pistachio croissant for our petit-dejeuner.


We also bought a small entremet cake from Laduree (cute lips!)

It is a white cake with raspberry filling and french vanilla buttercream, with a white chocolate shell on the outside (it was kinda hard to eat, especially since we were standing in line outside the Louvre... you had to use the fork to forcefully break the exterior white chocolate shell, but it is quite a treat when you get to the inside ~__^)

I thought we were gonna be the first in line... having gotten up around 6:50AM today and arriving by 8:30AM. The line was already winding around at least 10 times in front of the pyramid (small winding thankfully). By the time we walked out of the Louvre, people were winding up not only in front of the pyramid, but all the way to the back courtyard! There were so many people there! A picture of the line (and this is taken from at least 100 feet away):

A look at the line of people waiting to get in from the inside of the Louvre (I think we were on the 2nd etage at that point):

It's funny how one person knows where to go, and everyone follows. I don't know how we really ended up seeing all the most famous sights within the first 30 minutes of entering, except that you see EVERYONE going toward one direction and you just follow along! The Winged Victory statue was first up... made all the more awe-inspiring because it is located on the top of the staircase with natural light shining down on it.


Mona Lisa was second, and for the first time, I finally understood! You always see her watching you in pop culture movies and cartoons, but I never really thought the real painting was like that. But we walked from one end of the room to the other, and she was looking at us the whole time! We were lucky to get to the front for some good shots. Here we are on her left-hand side:

And here, we are on her right-hand side:

Venus de Milo is downstairs from Mona Lisa and Angel thought she looked pretty ripped :) I love how the Grecian marble sculptures sparkle... something about that marble ~__^


After the first 3 (the ones Angel HAD to see), we wandered throughout the whole museum. We saw some really interesting paintings and trinkets... Angel told me to pose like the King,

And here's one I think looks like Angel cackling:

We also saw Napoleon III's apartments. I love the gold accents contrasted with the light blue, light green and coral-red colors.



Angel was following me around and complaining that the Louvre is boring and how it was enough of museums for today. The bebe complains A LOT... has to go the bathroom, has to buy water :P Here is a good moment for her (as she got mad at me for making her carry an EMPTY bag earlier this morning):

The Musee de l'Orangerie is right next to the Louvre and how can you not go see MONET??? Plus it's also free today, so we went, where it started POURING. Thank goodness we had umbrellas. The Musee gave out free umbrella bags and they are so pretty, with paintings on them! I loved the Monets... his color palette is to die for! I swear I can stare at his paintings the whole day!


I was surprised to see Renoir and Picasso also featured here, as well as Cezanne and Matisse. Although the Picasso display is of his earlier works, so the style he is known for was not on display here. They were more of uncolored sketches of the human form. Renoir is fabulous, but again, the paintings he is known for are not on display here.


There was another painter on prominent showcase, Paul Klee, supposedly the most famous 20th century surrealism artist. Angel thinks that if he hadn't had a famous patron, there's no way he would have become famous. I didn't get most of his paintings either... although there was one I liked ("A Gate") because of how he used black and white mediums to create a mystical artistic piece. Unfortunately, my camera died just before entering the Klee showcase because I snapped too many shots at the Louvre, so I wasn't able to get any of his paintings in.
Angel declared NO MORE MUSEUMS (too bad we bought the Rodin and d'Orsay tickets already... muahaha!).
Across from the Louvre is a famous Salon de The (tea salon), called Angelina's. They are known for their Chocolat Africain (hot chocolate) and the Mont Blanc.

Both are absolutely delicious! The hot chocolate is so thick and smooth and creamy and DARK! It tasted almost as if they added in cocoa powder to get the slight bitterness (enhances the chocolate flavor more). I thought I would just scoop off the chestnut puree on the Mont Blanc and leave the traditional whipped cream and meringue to Angel. But Angel said it tasted better all together, so I tried it, and it really does bring out the chestnut flavor and texture more. So naturellement, we went to the G20 supermarket afterward to buy canned chestnut paste :) ... As well as Bordeaux wine, Sauternes and Cote du Rhone, cuz they were so cheap! I believe the Bordeaux was like 2 euro for a regular sized bottle!
For dinner, we ate a Le DoReMi, a local bistro Bibi had recommended. Originally we went to the Yuppies Cafe (BAD name!) because the menu looked good, but we sat down, waited 5 minutes before a server even paid attention to us, and it turns out that the chef doesn't arrive til later so the only thing we could order was pretty much only drinks (by then it was already nearing 7pm!). So yes, walked a couple of blocks to DoReMi, where I ordered the tartare de boeuf with pomme frites and Angel had croque monsieur with pomme frites and SALAD (if I don't write this now, she'll edit it later to proudly tell you that she ate 3 leaves of salad).

We're beginning to think you can't go wrong with a bistro in Paris. The food was amazing! Angel kept raving about the bread of the croque monsieur. I kept raving about how creamy the tartare was. And for only 23 euros total! Including tip!
Upon arriving back to our hotel, we changed rooms to a "luxury" room. It is slightly larger, with one separate room for the toilet vs. the shower and we have our own twin bed (so I won't kick her late at night), but the closet is smaller.
As tomorrow is Monday, many businesses are closed (YET again!) so it took us a long time to plan out our schedule tomorrow, which is why I must sleep now.