Paris Day 4 - The Louvre

Well I have already talked about how huge the Louvre is from the outside but I don't even think that compares to how huge it is on the inside. To see the whole thing I think you would need a whole week to devote just to the Louvre.
Cool stair case. It's so aesthetically pleasing.

Once again, we splurged for the interactive media guide. I think we would have been completely lost without this thing. It has different tours programed in it and we took two of them. It was so informative and and helped us appreciate all the awesome things we were seeing.
The Louvre used to be a castle back in the day and this is what it used to look like.
This is me walking in the mote of the old castle!
Famous Stop # 1: Venus de Milo. (Oh la la)

Famous Stop #2: Winged Victory of Samothrace

Painting a painting in the Louvre. That would be a fun job. Notice the no picture sign on the top. Oops.

Famous Stop #3: The Mona Lisa (the most crowded, disappointing picture ever, although her eyes really do follow you everywhere you go.)
I got quite the scolding in French for taking this picture. I never really understood why. I think it was about taking pictures of other people or something. I just thought the crowd was crazy.
Lunch break! This is the cafe we ate at in the Louvre, above a grand stair case. Even though I swore I would not eat curry this week, I gave in and had the curry chicken sandwich. I can not help myself!

Famous Stop #4: Slaves - Michelangelo made these to go into a Pharaoh's tomb but at the last minute someone decided that they didn't want them so they were put straight into a museum.
Famous Stop #5: Cupid and Phyche - this was my favorite statue. I love it. The story goes that Cupid is in love with Phyche and she was just poisoned. To save her cupid sticks her with one of his arrows and this is the moment between life and death. Awww, Cupid saves Phyche with his love arrow. I like it.

So busy!

So French!

I love Da Vinci. This is Madona on the Rocks.
The fish/snake/bird in this picture had three tongues! I only have one.
We saw this picture as the museum was closing and we were taking one last stroll through a hall of paintings and we said: "Wait, this one was in our humanities class. It must be famous. Quick! Take a picture!"

Here are some more cool pictures of the Louvre and the views we had from the windows.
The Inverted Pyramid! Any one who has read or seen the Da Vinci Code will appreciate why I had to take this picture.

Our French Raclette
For our French meal of the night we experienced out first Raclette. We didn't take a picture of it so I looked this one up on the internet to kind of describe it. Here are the basic logistics of a Raclette. First you take your cheese and you place it on a rack under the grill on top. The cheese gets all nice and melted. Then you take your meet and you cook it (or not). Then on your plate you have some baked or mashed potatoes and, of course, some baguette. You take your warm melted cheese and poor it all over the potatoes and then eat it with the meat and some bread. It's as simple and delicious as that! Sean and I have decided that we are going to try and find a Raclatte machine when we get home so if any one wants to come over for a Raclette party just let us know.


Crepe Disaster!
For dessert Cecilia was not feeling well so Sean and I ventured out on our own to find a dessert crepe. After walking by quite a few creperies we finally decided on a winner and placed our order. Sean went all out and got the Mont Blanc which had caramel, chocolate, almonds, and coconut. It was huge! I stuck with my usual of lemon and sugar. We sat down on a curb ready to enjoy our delicious treat. I took one bite of my warm crepe and all of the sudden the bottom busted out and I had warm lemon sugar all over me! What a gyp! All the goodness ran out of my crepe and now I was stuck in downtown Paris with goop all over my pants. Sean's crepe was so big that it was inevitable, half way through, a big brown blob dropped on his pants. What a mess! After that, there was just no way we could enjoy our crepes.