Paris indoors, day 2

Or perhaps I should call this post "Paris dans la pluie" since it rained most of the time.  Ah well.  Good excuse to visit the museums and sit in cafés.

The Louvre is always busy, but we got there early (at 9:30 or so, which it seems is early enough by Parisian standards) and only waited in line a few minutes to get in.

As soon as we were in, we headed for the Mona Lisa, since I knew (from 6 years ago) that the room she's in is usually mobbed.  We were in luck.  We got up close to her without much problem, and even walked around to different angles to experience her famous eyes following us :-)

The ceilings in many halls of the Palais du Louvre
are astounding.

Looking down one of the many hallways.

A view outside the Louvre, simply
from an inside gallery.

The kids wanted to see the ancient Egypt exhibits.

 There are some amazingly old and beautiful artifacts there.  We especially liked the sarcophagi.

By the time we left, around noon, the entrance lobby under the glass pyramid was much busier!

Julia and I had a delicious lunch (at Vins et Terroirs) while Benjamin was happy enough with another baguette while we took a break in our apartment.

Yes, that's water...

Next stop, the Musée d'Orsay.  I love the fact that it used to be a train station, and was renovated into this beautiful space.  No pictures are allowed, but I snuck one from the top of the stairs (as did most every other tourist) looking out onto the huge hall.

A view through the clock at the top of the museum

The building houses the extensive and fabulous collection of impressionist and post-impressionist masterpieces:  Monet, Manet, Renoir, Degas, Pissarro, van Gogh, to name just a few.  It's really astounding how many world-famous, absolutely gorgeous paintings are in there.

A little bit of strolling in the rain,

then gathering some dinner for the kids to eat on their own...

since Thomas and I went out for a nice dinner (at L'Epigramme).  It was Valentine's Day, after all.

Wow, the French do know how to eat -- it looked so simple, and tasted divine.

The rain had stopped by early evening, and we saw the moon through the breaking clouds as we strolled the Seine (yes, lovely) after dinner.

The Eiffel tower is gently lit all night, but at the top of every hour it "sparkles" with a crazy dance of bright lights
 for a five minute show.  It's really quite eye catching, and a still photo doesn't begin to do it justice.

In the other direction, more peacefully lit, Notre Dame.