Full day today, we started out at the Arc de Triomphe. I was glad because five years ago when I was here, we visited, but skipped climbing to the top. The line had seemed long. Today, it was manageable and we got up to the top fairly quickly. The views were pretty nice.
From there, it was time to do something Elodie really wanted to do. That girl loves zoos, so we set off for the Jardin des Plantes and La Ménagerie. We're about a year too early to enjoy the big one at Vencennes, but the old, historic smaller one was enough to make Elodie happy. I'm glad they're doing the new one, and I hope they pump some money into the one we visited when they're done. It could use a little love. It was enough for our visit, but it is starting to sow its age.
After our zoo visit, we went to the Louvre. We planned it that way, to hit later in the day, because Wednesday is a day the Louvre is open late and we wanted to try to minimize the crowds. We did just walk in, no lines, and the crowds weren't too bad. Of course, the gallery with the Mona Lisa was crowded. The museum is so big, that we decided to make bee-lines for a couple top attractions today and come back later this week to go in depth.
So we went straight to Leonardo da Vinci's portrait of Lisa Gherardini. For me, the spectacle is seeing the throngs crowded around this one painting in a museum full of beautiful paintings.
Continuing our "A-list" visit, we went to see the Venus de Milo next. Impressive.
At that point, our history buff, Charlie, asserted his wish to see the Persian and near East artifacts, so we visited that collection.
That was about the end of our first visit... Hey, I said we were going back. I love having the Museum Pass... it makes decisions like that easy.
By this time it was time to head to dinner. We had a fabulous dinner at La Cuisine de Philippe. The specialty of the house were the soufflés. They were yummy.
After 38 days, it's hard to imagine that this trip is nearing it's end, but we still have a few days left in Paris and more sights to see. I really am enjoying the pace having 8 nights here is allowing us -- especially with the kids. It's nice to pick one or two things to do during the day and then work in "play time", Definitely the way to do this city, if you can afford it.
Tomorrow, we're going for the towers at Notre Dame.
