The City of Light in Autumn

Bonjour,

While in Paris, we spent a day at the Louvre.

The Louvre has over 10 miles(!) of gallery space, and it would take months to see everything. But we braved the crowds to see some of the masterpieces, including The Slave sculptures by Michelangelo, the Venus de Milo, Winged Victory, the Mona Lisa (of course), and the wonderful Vermeers.

We also visited "Cour Marly", where the grand statuary was initially commissioned for the park of the "Chateau de Marly," a small French royal residence outside of Paris.

Here's the view from the Pyramide du Louvre (the glass entrance for the Louvre designed by I.M. Pei and opened to considerable controversy in 1989) as we left the museum that night.

On our last day, we made our way to Musee D'Orsay, which is housed in a beautiful old train station and features 19th century French art by artists like Monet, Manet, Rodin, and Seurat. We ate lunch in the lovely old dining room that was originally part of the station hotel.

Alas, no cameras are allowed in the Musee D'Orsay...

And here we are, all set to go cruising down the Seine at sunset on that last night in Paris.

Here's what you see as you motor along under the full moon and the lights come on throughout Paris.

I know I posted the photo below before, but the Tour Eiffel is just so beautiful.

Afterward, we headed to our favorite neighborhood cafe, where we had a little wine, a salade de chevre chaud (green salad with chevre and honey toasted on baguette slices), a cheeseburger (Mom, only) and some good pommes frites (french fries). Dinner was followed by some chocolate from a fancy chocolatier.

Ahhh, the City of Light.

A bientot,

Kim