11.22.2012

Paris: Our arrival and The Louvre!

Happy Turkey day, everyone! 
I hope you are all having a fabulous holiday with friends and family.
Thanksgiving is the best!

So, this post really isn't about Thanksgiving.
It is about the second leg of our trip
(see the first bits of our trip in London here, here and here)
in Paris!
Whoop whoop!

After a late train ride from London, we arrived in Paris around 10 p.m.
We trucked it to our hotel,
(which was the cutest, most quaint hotel I have ever seen, by the way)
plopped down utterly exhausted in our room, and realized that we were STARVING.
But guess what? 
Everything was closed since it was so late.
Luckily, we remembered reading that there was a Domino's Pizza close to our hotel, 
so you better believe that we called 'em up and had a 
cheesy pie of goodness delivered to our room at oh, 11 at night.
We both agreed that it was the best pizza we had ever eaten.

 


After we had all stuffed our faces, and in Boston's case, 
taken a couple of cheeser pictures, 
we all crashed for the night.



The next morning, we braved the rainy weather, bundled up, and headed out to the Eiffel Tower!
Our cute hotel was only about a ten minute walk to the Eiffel Tower, 
so we went there probably seven times in our two day stay.
It was GLORIOUS.
This picture was our first glimpse of it... and we were just dying.
We couldn't believe we were actually there!!



Bost was pretty oblivious as to where we were, or why we were so stinking excited. 
But we gave him a croissant, and he was a happy camper!

I seriously love this kid.



We took a quick stop under the tower to take some pictures, 
and to enjoy some delicious chocolate-filled beignets. Yum!
We vowed to come back at least five more times, which we definitely did.
(I have about three million more pictures of the Eiffel Tower I will put up... so don't you worry!)



Then we were off to the Louvre!
The second that I saw the pyramid, I couldn't help but think of The Da Vinci Code. 
Such a great movie!



While I stood in line,
(the hour and a half line that we got to mostly skip because we had a stroller...what whaaaat!!)
Jord ran and got us some lunch from a yummy sandwich shop.
It was pretty surreal to be standing in the center of the Louvre, just eating our lunch.
It was awesome!

My yummy chicken cordon bleu sandwich. Delish!



After we got to skip the majority of the line (score!),
Jord found two tickets to enter the Louvre just laying on the ground (double score!).
He remembered from reading about it online that the tickets were reusable all day long, 
so we were able to get into the museum for free!
(It would have cost us over thirty bucks to get in, so we were psyched!)
It was our lucky day.

The museum itself was incredible. 
Words cannot describe it!
(It actually reminded us a lot of The Hermitage Museum  
that we went to a couple of years ago in St. Petersburg, Russia.)
It was just awesome!
 
From the ornate ceilings...


...to the enormous, wall-sized paintings, 
it was just amazing.

"Liberty Leading the People" by Delacroix

We had heard that the Mona Lisa was really hard to find/ get to, 
but we knew the second we entered the room where it was.
Check out this crazy crowd!



We couldn't believe how crazy people were acting to get a good picture of it.
I mean, they were throwing elbows and everything to get to the front of the pack!
It was nuts!


A very blurry Mona Lisa...oh well!

It was especially crazy that everyone was making such a fuss over such a tiny painting
(granted, it is the Mona Lisa, but still!)
when if you just turn around in the same room, 
there is this beautiful masterpiece--
and it covers the entire wall.

"The Wedding Feast at Cana" by Veronese

One of our favorite statues was "The Winged Victory."
It was beautiful!



I could not get over the elaborate entrances and ceilings in each room.
You could spend the whole time looking up and be just as impressed 
as you were looking at the sculptures and paintings.




I love this handsome guy.



(*Disclaimer...there are some nakie boy parts coming up in these next couple statues...
so consider yourself warned.)

I loved this one because it reminded me of chubby little Bost.



I loved this one.
It is Michelangelo's "The Dying Slave."
Isn't it incredible?



 The "Venus de Milo" was another definite favorite.

Side note: notice the "Beware of pit pockets" sign...they were everywhere in the museum!

We had to stop after a bit and let Bost run around to unleash the wiggles.
And who am I kidding, 
we were so happy to sit down for five seconds...we could have cried.





You know what's coming now, right?


You guessed it...
the cheeser face.



Bost was such a good sport through the whole museum.
Looking at paintings and statues just can't be that fun for a one year old,
but he did so awesome.
(The peachie-o's and cheese crackers definitely helped.)


"Hey Jord, lets try to look cute and take a picture!"



"Now lets show them how tired we really are."



Our last stop before we left was the section of the museum that 
held some of Napolean's housing quarters.
And holy cow, it was so ornate.
That guy had some sweeeeet rooms!


Some really beautiful antique crowns.

We left the Louvre just as the sun was setting, 
and wow, was it beautiful.
The view through the pyramid windows was just incredible!






We loved the Louvre SO much.
You must go there!!
You will love it.
Stay tuned for more pictures of Paris, coming up soon!


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