Another early breakfast and we were off! Our Louvre tickets were for 9am so we left the hotel at 7:45 and walked along the north side of the Seine this time. Within minutes of leaving I started to have a Tachycardia event which continued for some hours and sadly dominated what we could do for the day. Before you worry it was minor the heart rate spike was only to 148 but it came with all of the other symptoms wiping me out – most frustrating thing is I haven’t had one in about a year!
Musée du Louvre – timed tickets are a must and 9am is the perfect time, the queuing process only took about 15 mins to move through the stages, and we were continuously moving, so we made it to Mona at 9:20am well before the crowds. The guide books are right, the Mona Lisa is a tiny artwork and the throngs of people taking pictures and selfies mean you simply can’t appreciate it. The guide books also say turn around and marvel at the size of the Wedding Feast at Cana which apparently only took 15 months to paint.
The others continued on while I sat down and tried not to doze off in a gallery full of paintings depicting Christ being tortured in a variety of different ways. We split up with a view to meet at the cafe near Napoleons Apartments later on – but sadly that whole wing was closed. Highlights for us, MichaelAngelo’s slaves, Venus de Milo, Winged Victory of Samothrace, Liberty leading the people (almost as popular as the Mona Lisa but huge so easier to see), Galerie d’Apollon and the crown jewels housed there.
If you don’t know the Louvre contains 73,000sqm of gallery space and has 35,000 works of art. The ceiling heights and marble floors, staircases, pillars and ornate fresco’s are simply awe inspiring. Those kings and emperors who build this place had vision. Steve and I did make it to Café Mollien where we shared a piece of quiche and an orange juice on the terrace overlooking the pyramids. By then Rachel and Gordon had headed outside so we met them under the Arc de triomphe du carrousel (the smaller one at the Louvre end of the 3km walk through what were the palace grounds). On our way out we were blown away by the queues! Top tip, buy a 9am ticket.
Caldron and Place de la Concorde – it was a tad windy but we were thrilled to see the Olympic caldron still in place (coming down next week). We really enjoyed the garden walk up to Place de la Concorde, found a couple of fountains to fill our drink bottles and lovely looking cafe’s under the trees. Unfortunately most of Place de la Concorde was cordoned off for “France Gallop” yep they are running a horse racing event there, on the cobblestones of all things!
Avenue des Champs-Élysées – it’s so cool seeing all of the adjacent buildings on our walk, Musée l’orangerie (where Steve and I dearly want to go next time), Grand Palais and others. First stop Gucci for a pic then we trudged up the worlds most famous street. We saw the RH store being transformed for a celebrity book launch (didn’t see any famous people) and the Louis Vuitton store looking like a big suitcase and the fascinating Doir store before emerging at the roundabout to watch the crazy traffic and tourists.
A quick selfie and time to find a loo so we headed down Avenue Marceau (where all the super cars seem to drive) and found a lovely cafe for champagne and impromptu desserts – omg they were yummy after our hours of walking.
TBH we weren’t up to much after this so another Uber back to the hotel, quick naps and drinks in the bar before finding the most perfect looking Brasserie – La Halto – for le poussin and steak et frittes, €4 glasses of Rosé and Côtes-du-rhône.
Quotes of the day – “I’m only having one croissant today”, “They were really obsessed with hermaphrodites in the 1600’s” and “why does everything come with potatoes”.
Step count – 21,880
Kiwi Roaming 
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