Trip Of A Lifetime...Part Three

On day three of our trip to Paris was Louvre Day!!  I was so excited to get there, but not without my huge raspberries and pain au chocolat first!

On our walk over, we came across this Wisteria tree that was literally braided into the fence.  It was so cool!

Across the river from the Louvre.  Almost there...

We stopped for a few photos before heading in to be emerged in beautiful art...

Now, as you know, the Louvre is HUGE.  I'm talking gi-nor-mous.  We could take as many pictures as we wanted, just with no flash.  But I'm only including a few of our favorites here.

One of our favorites was this beautiful statue called Winged Victory.  She is missing her head and arms, but she is lovely (and very old).

This room was one of the king's throne room and it had King Louis XIV's crown on display.

This is a beautiful fresco.  It was painted in a church in Italy and the wall was literally taken down and transported to the Louvre (that's why there's a chunk missing).  I was amazed, and yet I wondered why they didn't leave it in the church?  Why do you move a whole wall?

This was the Grand Hall and housed some very famous works of art including many of DaVinci's.

This section of the Louvre was used as part of Napoleon III's apartments.  The furnishings and paintings on the ceiling were incredible!

 I love how in this picture you can see the Louvre outside the pyramid.

We, of course had to go see Venus de Milo.  She was beautiful!

This is a painting of the coronation of Napoleon (more accurately the crowning of his wife, Josephine).  It was absolutely HUGE and I loved the colors and the detail.

We then saw the famous Mona Lisa. What I really wish I would have taken a picture of was the huge crowd of people fighting for a chance to look at her.  It was so funny to watch people gather around the tiny painting.  I know she's a masterpiece of beauty and perfection, but I honestly don't get what is so great about her anyway.  I honestly saw far greater pieces of art, but at least I can say I got to see her too!

We ate a relaxing lunch on the terrace overlooking the inner courtyard of the Louvre.  It was a beautiful view and a delicious meal.

We had spent the day absorbing culture, but we needed to get to our river dinner cruise, so we headed back to the hotel. On our way there, we passed a beautiful little flower shop.  We stopped in and Ryan bought me flowers for our date that night!  What a sweetheart I married!  Thanks, Sweetie!

We got freshened up and went down to the river for our dinner cruise.  The food was wonderful, the music was great, and the scenery was lovely (plus the company was fabulous!).

This guy played for two solid hours!  He was great!

I took pictures of every course, but I will spare you...but I had to include this one of my roasted beef and vegetables.  It was, hands down, the best thing I ate on this trip (yes, including anything with chocolate in it!).  The beef literally melted in my mouth before any chewing was begun.  Divine!

This is France's Statue of Liberty.  Honestly, until the movie National Treasure 2 came out, I didn't know Paris had one (they actually have 2).  This is a neat shot with the Eiffel Tower in the background.

We took a lot of pictures while we were eating, but we were behind a window, so they didn't turn out great, but we managed to get a few good shots when we went on top of the boat.  It was neat to see Paris from the river, and at night when everything is lit up. 

Aaahhh, that was the end of another wonderful day!