With Love, From Paris. Day 6

Day 6

On Friday morning, we awoke again in Paris.  Our plan was to visit Musee du Louvre, since it was closed when we had visited on Tuesday.  But, our first stop was breakfast at Boulangerie Beatrix.  Nuno and I had warm, butter croissants and cafe au lait to drink.  The girls had croissants and hot chocolate.  While we were sitting and eating, I noticed the baker filling boxes with warm bread.  I was curious as to what he was doing and asked him.  He said the bread was to deliver to the school children.  What a lovely thought - fresh, warm bread, probably for their morning snack!  The baker, then gave us some of the bread to try! 

Warm bread for the school children

France's flag, on our way to the Louvre

This is the statue called Winged Victory.  A headless statue of Greek goddess Nike (Victory) dating back from about 200 BC.  This statue is one of the "most celebrated" sculptures in the world!

View from a different angle

Walking along, inside the Louvre, on our way to see the famous Mona Lisa.

And here she is!  Leonardo's "La Gioconda".  One of the most famous paintings in the world!  This was the best picture I could get.  The Mona Lisa is actually behind bullet proof glass and we are unable to get up close to it.  

"...The lady in the painting is not named Mona.  Mona is the equivalent of Madame, so she is "Madame Lisa".  The model was actually Lisa Gherardini, the wife of an obscure Florentine merchant." - Frommers, Paris 2011

This is for you to get an idea of the "madness" of tourists, snapping photos of the Mona Lisa.  If you look closely, you can see her behind the bullet proof glass, in the center.

The girls and I standing in front of one of my favourite paintings in the Louvre - Parisian artist, Madame Lebrun and her Daughter ( a self portrait of herself and her daughter)

And here is the famous Venus de Milo, an ancient Greek statue, dating back to 130 and 100 BC.  This is believed to be a depiction of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty.

One of the gorgeous ceilings inside the Louvre!

And that ends our tour of the Musee du Louvre.  We didn't even get to see half of what was on display.  We'll save the rest for next time!  Next stop, as per Annabel's request, was Ile St-Louis, her favourite place to walk in Paris!  

Brasserie de L'Isle Saint Louis 55, Quai Bourbon

Setting up patio for lunch (where we later came to eat).

Come for a walk along with us...

This man played the accordion, on this street corner, the entire time we ate our lunch.  His French music set the perfect mood!  We could see him playing from our seats.

The beauty of Paris, surrounds you, everywhere you go.

Here is Annabel, making a huge bubble, with the help of a street entertainer!

The girls and I, shopping for souvenirs in Ile Saint Louis

Brasserie de L'Isle Saint Louis - where we had lunch

After lunch, we stopped at Berthillon for ice cream.  This is the most famous ice cream parlor in France.  And now I know why!  The ice cream is to die for!  It is only open Wednesday through Sunday and is closed July and August.  We were lucky to visit in September!  It was so good, we came back on our last day for more!

We walked along the banks of the Seine towards our hotel...

passed the many vendors selling books, magazines, posters, etc...

and saw the beautiful view of Notre-Dame, from across the river.

And just look at what we stumbled across!

It was an authentic Parisian food and wine festival!  There were vendors selling wine, chocolate, cheese, escargots, and much more!  We, of course, blended right in with the Parisians and joined the festivities!  The first thing we tried, was wine soaked, sweet melon.  MMM!!  We were then given bags and lined up for free local grapes, apples, and garlic.  We had SO much fun!  

We even bought some delicious escargots!

Here we are, sitting on the river bank, eating our escargots.  Annabel was the only one who didn't like them, and that's because she didn't want to try them.  They were delicious!  Funny thing happened, as I was sitting there, eating.  A woman (another tourist) came up to me and asked if she could take a picture of me with the escargots.  I said, "Sure!"and posed for the photo.  Then she asked how I liked them.  I said they were great.  I asked if she would like to try one, and she did.  She liked it so much, she went to line up to get some for herself! 

We were getting tired and tried to walk back to our apartment, without stopping anywhere.  But, of course, it was impossible.  There were too many new things we hadn't seen.  Here are some more photos of our walk back...

 

 Marche aux Fleurs, place Louis-Lepine

A beautiful water fountain!

One of the cute shops along the way

A pretty, roman catholic church, with doors wide open

Eglise Saint-Merri

close to our apartment

Whew!  We had a wonderful, fun-filled day walking all around Paris. But, boy were we tired!!  We finally got to our room and had a couple of hours to rest, before our meeting with a dear friend of ours and her family.  We scheduled to meet each other under the Eiffel Tower at 9:30 pm.

We arrived early and took our last photos of the Eiffel Tower.

This is truly one of the most beautiful monuments I've ever had the pleasure of seeing in person!!

The tower twinkling at 9:00 pm.  It's impossible to capture the gorgeous twinkling lights on camera!

This merry-go-round is within walking distance to the Eiffel Tower.  Isn't it beautiful?  Have you ever seen a merry-go-round with two floors?