Paris Day Two

On our second day in Paris, we left our hotel headed for the Louvre.  A few blocks from our hotel was an incredible open air market.  There was fresh everything.  

Fresh shellfish of all kinds,

 fruits,

 vegetables,

 spices and olives,

 and more olives,

 dried fruits,

and assorted meats and cheese.

After wandering through this amazing market, we walked to the Louvre, which Matt likes to call "Napoleon's House."  That's because Napoleon did make this very old and incredible structure his home.  We aren't sure how he heard the doorbell ring.

 Note the flash of baby zooming by in the picture below.  Once we came upon this open square, we decided to let K stretch his legs.  Once out of his stroller, he was off!

 There were many stairs upon which to climb...

After the romp in the square, we headed inside.  While waiting in line, K tried to put on his cutest expression to try to get us discounted tickets, but it didn't work...

I don't know if I am allowed to post pictures of the art we saw online, so I'm not going to, but we saw the major pieces - the Mona Lisa, The Wedding Feast, and many, many incredible sculptures.  We wanted to take a more thorough tour of the Egyptian and Greek antiquities section, but that was, frankly, a stupid desire considering the fact that we had a 20-month-old in tow.  We finally coerced Kellan to go to sleep and  decided to use that as an opportunity to visit Napoleon's apartments, which were as drab, minimalistic and dull as I expected them to be.  Ha!

Here is the entrance to the apartments.  I apologize for the bleeding lights...no flash allowed and I am not a very experienced photographer...

The ceilings were magnificent.

as were the chandeliers.

This was the reception room.  The chandelier was out, but I think that's because all of the patrons would have been blinded had it been on.

Another sitting area...

And the dining room.  Perfect accommodations for an intimate party of one, two, three....fifty?

Finally, we reached Napoleon's bed chambers.

It was at this point that Matt, seeming a little panicked, pulled out the map and started to look through it frantically.  "Dude, they don't have an exhibit with his toilet?"  Clearly, this is what he had been looking forward to the entire time.  After taking one last look, we left Napoleon's apartments with slumped shoulders.  Poor Matt.

In all seriousness, these apartments were some of the most amazing (I am running out of words to describe things that are beautiful, awe-inspiring, etc.) rooms I have ever seen.  I hope to return to the Louvre at some point for a more in-depth tour so I can see more of the amazing art and history this museum has to offer.

After our walk through the Louvre, we found a restaurant on the way back to the hotel.  Though the service was atrocious (we were there for over two hours, which Kellan handled like a champ).  I had a roasted pork shoulder with sauerkraut and Matt had ghoulash.  Dessert was the most amazing creme brulee I have ever had.  Great meal, just would have liked it to have arrived less than an hour after we ordered.

Yet another incredible day in The City of Lights (which was over a week ago, ha).  Wish these photos would upload faster!