Day 3 - Lots of museums

We woke up to pouring rain - yes, it feels like Washington!

We headed out to see the little short dictator's tomb. Lori wanted to see his stuffed horse but it was closed. The church where Napolean is buried is pretty amazing - very ornate. It sure belies the thought that he was for the people - everywhere you look there is gold, marble and just as much over the top stuff as the kings. Hmmm....

Napolean's final resting place

The alter in the church where Nap I is buried

We walked thru the tomb area and guess what - we got separated! Yes we went 2 different diretions. We ended up finding each other outside.

We decided to bag the rest of the military museum and go to the Rodin Museum which is about 2 blocks away. It has beautiful gardens and fromt the gardens you can see the steeple of Invalides. The Thinker and the Gates of Hell were in the gardens. Rain and all we walked around and saw a number of statues.

The Thinker in the Rodin Museum Garden

The Gates of Hell

When it really started raining, we went inside and saw The Kiss and then some of Camille Claudel's sculputure. It was crowded but a good stop.

The Rodin Museum House from the gardens

We went back to the apartment where I met my French teacher who turned out to be a man (don't worry, I could take him - he's about 5'3", 100 lbs and narrower shoulders than me - thank you, Greg). Lori went and browsed around the Rue Cler and I went with Stephano to a coffee shop where we worked on my lousy French.

After my class Lori and I decided to go to the Louvre. It is open until 9:45pm. Before we went we tried calling our spouses but since I had figured the time change wrong, they were already at work. We got on the bus (we have now figured it out) and rode right to the Louvre. We did a "2 chicks in Paris" picture right in front of the pyramid. Of course, it was raining and cold but by now I had 3 shirts and a jacket on.

We rented those tape things to tell us all about the art. Our first stop was the history of the Louvre which was closed. Then we went to the oldest section of the Louvre. After that we went up to Napolean III's apartment which was across in the Richeleiu section.

Napolean III's apartments

After that, we decided to head to the crown jewels and guess what - we lost each other! I thought Lori went into the bathroom so I waited for about 15 minutes before I figured out she was not there. She had gotten onto the escalator and was looking for me across the reception area in the entrance to the Denon wing. When I could not find her, I figured we would eventually hook up so I went to see Mona and the crown jewels. I also listened to part of my DaVinci Code walk.

When I was done, I went back to the place where I had rented my audio tour. I figured I would wait for Lori there. Lo and behold, she had just gotten there and was waiting for me. She had done the same thing - went to the crown jewels and Mona Lisa. I think we probably walked right past each other.


We went to Starbucks at the Louvre for a raw muffin and coffees. Then we called our husbands from the Louvre telephones (here that, guys!). By now, it was closing time. So we left and headed to the bus stop.

Our final adventure begins here - a very nice Parisian woman told us our bus stopped running about 30 minutes before we got there. So we decided on a cab and we began walking to try and find a cab. We walked to the other side of the Seine River but could not find a cab anywhere. I tried my French on a bartender who told us the taxi stand was 10 minutes away. So we continued walking and did finally find a taxi ten minutes away.

Our taxi driver spoke no english but did speak Spanish so I was able to get enough information to him to get us home. I was also able to find out where Lori would catch a cab the next morning for her cooking class.

The Louvre thru the pyramid as we were leaving