Oo La La... Gay Paree, part two.

After the hectic first day, we aimed to get to the Louvre early in the morning to hopefully miss out on the crowds. Walking and more walking, we finally get into the Louvre- After reading DanBrown's 'Da Vinci Code', it was rather cool to see the glass pyramids.

We got into line, andas you can see, it really wasn't too long. Bought our tickets and our guide earphones and went hunting for the Mona Lisa.

Again, at 10am, it wasn't very busy, and we got up to the front of the barricades where Ms Lisa was and got an eyeful of the famous lady.

The actual picture itself is rather small. While I don't quite know what all the fanfare is about... I do think that she has quite a sad smile.We then wondered about the rest of the Louvre. It is SO BIG- We went into a couple of rooms which contained paintings which would just about cover an entire wall (and more) of your regular bedrooms.

I was very glad to have the audioguide- I think that part of the draw of appreciating art is finding out the story behind it. Maybe I've only just come to this realisation late in my life- but while it's all well and good to say - nice colours, great modelling of the human body... it's better yet, when you learn about the artist's motives, and what they were trying to achieve- and if there are any additional stories attached to the subject. It becomes more...real(?) to me.

Anyway, we trundled up and down the Louvre for a few hours, before the grumblings of my stomach drew us to more pressing matters. We decided to head across the river Seine and go into St Germain.

I had read of the most wonderful maker of 'macarons'- that's French for mouthfuls of heaven- think flavoured meringue-y ground almond biscuits, sandwiched by a flavoured creme. I don't do them justice- you can find out more, over here: http://travelerslunchbox.com/journal/2005/12/5/gluttony-101-three-days-in-paris.html
Anyway, we found the Pierre Hermes shop and walked in- a jewel of a shop, with the cakes, pastries and macarrons displayed under glass cases like multicoloured jewels. I horrified Matt by choosing 15 macarrons in 2 minutes. Packed in tissue and into a box with a ribbon around it (ah, only in Paris), we walked out in search of lunch. Matt exclaiming over the amount of Euros I spent in the shop, and me being oblivious to the scolding.

The weather that day was WEIRD. One minute the sun would be blazing down, and the next, it would be pouring down (really, I kid you not) with rain. The whole day, it just went from sunny, to pissing down and back.... We were walking really quickly and decided to duck into this bistrot to have a bite of lunch.

Matt had a roast duck meal.. and I ordered an oven baked venison stew, with preserved lemons. While I remembered Matt's dish as being really yummy, I was in love with my meal- tender meat, melting bits of aubergine/eggplant and the salty tang of the preserved lemon skins cutting through everything. I don't THINK we ordered any desert, we were so full... but if they were half as good as our mains were, maybe we should have ordered ahead! We broke out the macarrons- Matt had a peanut butter one, and I had a salted caramel- *bliss*. I ask Matt what he thinks.. "Not bad". Finally rolling ourselves out the door with a "Merci, au revoir!" We head back out to wander the streets, lined with canvases and one art gallery after another.