In Louvre With Paris

Our first rainy day. Well, actually just about 2 hours of drizzle in the morning. We thought we'd try our luck and go to the Louvre while Pierce did his stroller nap. Started with our 'daily bread' from a bakery across the street. This is an adorable tiny shop that I'll snap a picture of soon. Maybe three people can fit in it, and there's always a line out the door about 10 deep.

We decided to walk halfway to the Louvre, which puts us at Hotel De Ville, or Paris city hall and let Pierce burn off some steam before nap time. Yet another merry go round ride, this time on the double decker one! Pierce is obessesed with the merry go round, which he calls 'playground' because they have them in so many Paris playgrounds. Boy is he going to be disappointed when we go back to Chicago parks :) A quick side note about Paris parks, they are unbelievable, so many cool contraptions, none of it would fly in the states, we'd be suing the pants off the park district for injuries. We'll take some pics and post at a later date, but the stuff on playgrounds here is a far cry from ordinary. Let's just say trampolines built into the ground surrounded by concrete and some spinning devices that look like they might propel a kid 200 yards across the park. It's a good thing we are mellow parents :). A 'traditional' slide appears with Pierce in this pic.

Back to our day. After a quick trip of elevator and escalator riding at the Pompidou Center (Pierce loves the glass elevators), we had a nice lunch at a nearby Italian place. This is only the third lunch here that Pierce has been awake for. He enjoyed his Caprese Salad and pizza. He fell asleep like clockwork and we ventured into the Louvre. Pretty crowded for a February day. We made it into two of the galleries (Richelieu and Denon). Mitch hit it on the head when he mentioned on this visit he is so much more fascinated by the architecture of the interior, the lighting and the security than the artwork. I guess it's a combination of been there, done that and just seeing a different perspective this time around. Did the requisite swing by the Mona Lisa in the Denon gallery. She's been moved since the last time we were here back in 2002, complete now with a 30 foot view. The rope was at least that far back, with likely about 200 tourists clamoring for a view. We were more interested in the people than the piece. It's a far cry from previous visits. Honestly if memory serves me right, back on my first trip to Paris in 1989 (20 years ago, yikes!!) it wasn't even behind glass yet.

Back to the apartment for a wine, salmon quiche and fresh salad dinner. Another pleasant Parisian day.