Paris Day 29

April 27, 2010

Day 29 Paris

Today was suppose to be our last day in Paris, but due to hotels being ridiculously expensive in Luxembourg, we decided to stay an extra night in Paris and make Luxembourg a day trip.  Today we headed to the train station to exchange earlier reserved tickets to Luxembourg.  After getting that all straightened out, we headed to the Louvre.  We had a quick snack in the McCafé (that looked out over a room in the Louvre) and Trevor explored in the Apple store just outside the entrance and then we made our way in.  Again I got in free (so awesome!)  Our priorities here were the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo.  First we headed to the Mona Lisa (very well marked for easy access.)  Throughout the museum there are signs that tell people that they can take pictures, but no flash.  When we walked to the Mona Lisa, all you could see was a crowd of people and flashes going off constantly!  I guess there's a reason why there is a glass case in front of the painting.  We took some pictures and headed to Venus de Milo.  On the way we found an Argo medallion, the French version of the Prime Meridian, on the floor in the museum.  Once at Venus de Milo, a similar situation to Mona Lisa was happening.  We squeezed our way into the crowd and took some pictures.  We then planned out what we really wanted to see.  My feet were aching (keep in mind this is day 27 of go go go action on our part and even 24 hours in a train isn't enough to rest my poor aching feet!)  We picked out the things to see and headed to each.  I have to say that I think the best way to see a museum, or at least to appreciate it, is to see only one per month.  I no longer had the patience to look at everything in the Louvre.  We managed to appreciate a few things by the time we left the museum, but there was so much more we missed.  Next, it was off to the Arc de Triomphe.  The craziest thing about the Arc was the insane traffic circle surrounding it!  I have no idea how people knew when to get in or out of the circle.  There were no lines on the street indicating lanes.  It was a huge free-for-all.  I'm glad we took the metro!  Off we went next to see the Moulin Rouge, took some pictures, and thinking we still had some time, Trevor wanted to head to a Planetarium.  Unfortunately, it was closed.  We figured it was time to try another exotic culinary dish, frog's legs, so we headed to the restaurant I had read about.  It was really expensive, but luckily someone at the restaurant pointed us to a different restaurant (same owner) that specialized in frog's legs, La Grenouille (frog).  It was a very cute restaurant with all kinds of kitchen tools as chandeliers.  We ended up having frogs' legs (and like they say, they taste like chicken).  They were tasty, but small.  As we headed back to the hotel, Trevor and I were still having a craving and ended up getting sushi and calamari at a nearby restaurant.  So tasty!  We then headed back to the hotel and called it a night.