Last Weekend in Paris

For our last weekend in Paris I finally got around to seeing the Eiffel Tower. We went for a ride for a couple of hours on Saturday morning and passed by the tower. It is iconic but not especially impresive. However, the croissants at the bakery we were heading for were - probably the best so far. We also saw the Pont Alexander - a beautifully decorated bridge over the Seine. After our ride we did a big shop for travelling next week and then headed back into town on the metro. We had a few quiet beers at a great little cafe\bar tucked away in a passage near the Palais Royal. The place has about 10 seats and a great atmosphere (as well as some tasty Belgian Beers on tap).

On Sunday we headed into the Louvre (after a fortifying coffee). I hadn't been super motivated to see this as I had only heard about the crowds struggling to see the Mona Lisa. We completely avoided that part of the museum and were greatly impressed by all the other parts. The sculpture gardens were fantastic, the pilfered loot from Egypt and Mesopatamia (goodness knows how they got it back to France) was fascinating and the sundry paintings were great. Highlights were Puget's scupltures (espically Milo of Crotona), Delacroix's large scale picture of Jean of Arc, enormous stone slabs from Mesopatamia and the northern European painters.

We are now packing and wondering how the huge pile of of stuff in our room will fit in the little car we pick up tomorrow.