Paris day 2 -- 2010

Nancy at the inverted pyramid

Nancy in the grand gallery

Jeff by the Venus di Milo

Nancy and the Mona Lisa -- Nancy is on the right

What a wonderful day today, weather was gorgeous, the temperature at 7pm was still at 26 degrees celsius!!
We slept in to 8 am and didn't leave the hotel until 9am and headed for the Louvre. My idea was to get in and see the Mona Lisa, the Winged Victory and the Venus de Milo and get out but Nancy had us stay and view much more which turned out great. We spent most of the morning at the Louvre and actually didn't leave until after 2pm!! Even if you're not into art you can spend more than a day there and still not see it all, there are over 400,000 pieces there so there is something for everyone. With Nancy's scooter we bypassed the lines and the other good things to do would be to pre-order your tickets and get to the museum either early in the morning or late in the afternoon to miss the lines. we got there late (after 930 am) but by the time we left the crowds had easily doubled, and even at 9:30 in the morning the Mona Lisa room was already full!! We saw the Egyptian, Greek and Italian sculpture sections and also there is a wonderful exhibit in the basement about early Paris. Would also strongly recommend the audio guides as all signage is in French.
When we left the Louvre we took a cruise along the Seine to the Eiffel Tower. Word of warning to anyone who has mobility problems or having to carry a stroller etc be aware there are many stairs to most of the on and off stops along the way.
Got off at the Eiffel Tower and had a quick lunch there before heading to the tower and up to the first floor all that Nancy and the scooter could get to (luckily that's were many of the gift shops were). I went up to the top just to say I did it. It cost another 5 euros and I think for that price it was worth the effort although the line up was insanely long and the worst problem with a long line to get up to the top is the equal long line to get down. The view on such a clear day was worth it and I can say I did it, however I probably would not do it again (of course I wouldn't go to the extra level at the Empire State Building again either).
We walked home and that was well worth the trip as we walked along real Paris streets as apposed to the tourist type streets. We got back to the street our hotel is on and stopped by one of the many sidewalk cafes' and got a Lasagna to take back to our room -- we don't think they do a lot of "take aways" but did it anyway and it was delicious!! We were both exhausted from a very long day and were both looking forward to a nice long sleep!!
We will have a free day tomorrow so we plan on a good old sleep in tomorrow. We have only one day left before we head home!! It is hard to believe our trip is almost over!!