Day 6--Miscellaneous



Before making our way to the daunting Louvre, we decided to take a brief break for lunch, having spent the entire morning and early afternoon in the Musee D'Orsay.

Near the Musee D'Orsay, you can get an interesting first glimpse of the Louvre from a distance across the river. Here you can see the end of one side of the massive Louvre complex and the bridge where we crossed the river to get into that area of the city to look for some lunch.

We passed through a large walkway between the Louvre and the Jardin des Tuileries, seen here. There were many people walking about and statues throughout the park, but we did not go in for a closer look. Our feet were already very sore and were in dire need of food so we moved on.

While wandering around the area of the Louvre, which was quite nice, we found a place to eat and ordered a Panini, which is a sandwich which they grill on the outside. This photo shows a cafe, with a Smart Car parked in front, very near where we had lunch. After eating, we were thirsty and realized we had forgotten our water bottles so went in search of something to drink. We would have ordered a drink from the place where we got the Panini, but they were charging more for a can of soda then we paid for our sandwich and we knew we could do better. We just wandered the streets for a while until we found a tiny grocery store tucked down an alley. Inside we found the exact same cans of soda for one fourth the price we had seen earlier. Gladly we forked out the money...in Paris it pays to be patient when it comes to spending money on food. If you hold out for a while you are bound to save. We took our drinks and drank them as we continued to walk and accidentally found ourselves in a place called Jardin du Palais Royal. I had seen it on my map, but it is so well hidden that it isn't easy to find.

We were quite delighted with this little park, which featured lines of trees, statues here and there, and several fountains like this one that were actually running. The entire garden was enclosed away from the street and surrounded by small shops which weren't obviously seen unless you were really looking for them. We finished our soda and felt nicely refreshed walking through this neat little garden on a Sunday afternoon.

Here I am standing along a line of trees. It was very pretty but I'm sure it's even better when it's spring and everything is in bloom. Still, this made for a nice photo.

On our way out of the park, going back to the finally enter the Louvre, we saw the actual Palais Royal. I have no idea what the building actually is or what makes it significant, but it was interesting to look at so I took this quick photo.

In front of the Palais Royal there was a interesting courtyard full of small round platforms of different heights. Lots of children were playing here and to join in the fun I hopped up on one and posed for this silly picture.