louvre

we beat the crowds to the Louvre today. how do you describe the world's largest art museum? Like a firehose...overwhelming, moving, and powerful. so much to see, but we are limited by our time here, and our stamina. some highlights for us...winged victory, venus di milo,, and aphrodite's kiss...all sculptures. there are too many amazing painting to list!

we had lunch at a lovely cafe in the Tullieries garden. a beautiful afternoon ... we visited some famous chocolatiers and sampled their wares. we will be experts in french chocolate by the time we leave!

apparently, the Eiffel tower didn't satisfy our need for a good view, so we hopped aboard the Paris wheel and took a few turns around. then we headed back to the Ile de Cite and saw St. Chapelle, which houses some of the best stained glass in europe. it's a small but great place of worship for the nobels.

we took the metro to Printemps, a major department store in the heart of the city, and split up to do some shopping. clothes aren't cheap in Paris, but Stacy and Erica found some €5 shirts (wow!).

spent the evening at the cafe Marche on Rue Cler., a quaint steet just down from our hotel. so far the weather has been great...cloudy but warm. but tonight the rains came, so instead of sharing a bottle of wine in the courtyard (as has become our custom), we moved indoors and played cards.

paris has been great, but we are tired and looking forward to some good downtime in the Loire valley. tomorrow we rent the van, visit versailles (probably in the rain) and stay in a chateau...