Away in April 2011

Day 23 – Paris – Le Louvre and Les Halles

Louvre, Les Halles

Saturday, 23 April 2011

Early start for the Louvre to avoid the queues. Despite planning what we wanted to see, the scale of the museum is overwhelming. It is easy to be distracted by the enormity and quality of the collection and, as the morning progressed, the throng of tourists.

Highlights for us were the Egyptian section and the Seated Scribe; sculptures such as the Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, Micahelangelo’s slaves, and a bust of Alexander; and Italian paintings such as the Coronation of Napoleon.

Fantastic shops at the Louvre but the online shop is excellent, too, if you want to avoid squashed posters and extra baggage. There is also a post office so we sent some postcards that we bought at the shop.

Revived with baguettes at the Louvre cafe and coffee at Starbucks, we wound our way to Les Halles for the start of our afternoon Paris Walk, Easter at Les Halles, with Peter our guide. We were regaled with stories of food, architecture, and the story of the market of Les Halles.

Early dinner at a cafe (Commerce) on Rue Montorgueil – I had “hot fish” (two small whole fish beautifully cooked) with rice and vegetables whilst Anthony had the Charcuterie (smallgoods) plate. Rue Montogueil is a fantastic food street so we couldn’t resist buying some blueberries and raspberries, a chocolate eclair, a baguette and a millefeuille (vanilla slice) – all for later!

Then caught the metro from Les Halles, the biggest interchange in Paris, back to our apartment for a night in.

	Painted wooden Egyptian figures [Map]		The Seated Scribe [Map]
	Venus de Milo [Map]		Winged Victory of Samothrace [Map]
	The Glass pyramid of the Louvre [Map]		Teresa & Anthony inside the Louvre [Map]
	Bust of Alexander the Great [Map]		Michaelangelo’s sculptures of the slaves [Map]
	Houses dating from Mediaeval times – note the lean [Map]		An early example of a passage [Map]
	Modern artwork commemorating close of Les Halles m [Map]		Peugot pepper mills [Map]
	dinner at les Halles [Map]		Anthony and Teresa having dinner [Map]
	Oldest patisserie in Paris [Map]		Teresa shopping [Map]