An Amerian in Paris continued

Now I'm typing on our hotel's American keyboard, which should make this whole process go a lot smoother. The last two days have been filled with museum goings. Our museum pass expires tomorrow, so we are craming in as much as we can. Yesterday was almost entirely dedicated to the Louvre. We saw as many of the big highlights as we could before collapsing from exhaustion. We did see the Mona Lisa, although it is constantly surrounded by tons of people and is behind a big pane of (probably bulletproof) glass. There were also some Boticelli frescos and some really pretty Rafaels. We passed several artists in the hallways reproducing famous works, all of them were very good painters. We also of course made our way to Venus d'Milo, again amongst a crowd. There is so much art and history in the Louvre you begin to barely acknowledge it; "oh look, another amazing painting from centuries ago, lets move on". That was when it was time to leave. We rushed through the Eygpt halls before having lunch in the international food court. I got some awesome Marakesh (sp?) food. We have not yet seen the Tuilleres gardens, but are going to go back to the Louvre tomorrow night since it is open late then.

While leaving the Louvre we did our good travellers deed of the vacation and helped a woman from Tampa navigate the metro system. I have to say the Parisian metro is excellent; the trains are clean, sometimes air conditioned, and maps are everywhere. It costs about one euro per train ride no matter the distance. That afternoon we switched hotels (some big screwup in the Marriot system) to a place more in the Paris suburbs. We are on the 12th floor and have a great view. Even though we are further away from everything, its a nice chance to see a different side of Paris.

Today was again jam-packed as mom let me sleep in late. We started at the Musee Rodin and saw many of his famous sculptures. notably, The Thinker, Balzac, The Kiss, and The Gates of Hell. Although The Thinker is the most famous, my favorite was The Kiss. I think it shows much more emotion and is a beautiful piece of art. We then made a brief stop at Hotel d'Invalides to see Napolean the first's tomb. Talk about compensating for something...his stone coffin is probably about 15 ft. high at least underneath an enormous painted dome. From there we walked to Musee d'Orsay which is the premiere museum for impressionist paintings. We saw VanGogh's Starry Night, many classic Monet's, Whistler's Mother, several ballerinas by Degas, and other Renoir's and Manet's. We only did the highlights since we got there later in the afternoon and even though they are 'open' until 6pm, they kick you out at 5:30. We then metroed to Sacre Coer, a beautiful "white wedding cake" church that was currently having mass. The inside is very nice with incredible mosaics all over the walls, but honestly the view of Paris was my favorite. It is on top of an enormous hill (some of which we climbed) and has a great panoramic of the city. Lastly, we walked to Moulin Rouge (needed a picture for dad), which took way longer as we got lost in some Paris backstreets. On the plus side we got to see lots of cool open air cafes and markets selling fresh fish, fruits and vegetables. 8 hours later we got back to the hotel and had steak frites (again) at a nearby cafe. It's almost 10:30 now and I am ready to pass out. Thursday we plan to visit Versailles, so news on that to come!