Day 26,

off early again,

and back on to the Metro,

our train soon arriving,

up the steps,

and a pose under the very art nouveau sign,

and this is where we are going, the Louvre,

we made our way,

through the entrance hall,

to the famous square,

where the glass pyramids are,

there is one large one,

which is surrounded,

 by three smaller ones,

the thing is looking at those,

it is so easy not to look at the magnificent buildings that make up the backdrop,

into the queue,

and we were soon inside,

looking upwards,

then down we saw her,

map at the ready, and you need one with 14.5 kilometers of corridors to navigate,

the lady is I guess the most well known guest here,

but there is so much more to be amazed at,

although it was crowded outside,

with so much to see sometimes,

it feels that there are not many visitors here,

but we were soon caught up,

I found the statue interesting, I had always thought of the Victory as an abstract, I never knew that there was a deity actually called Victory, 

in ancient Greek religion, Nike was a goddess who personified victory, she was a message of Zeus, in Roman times the association is obvious, her name in ancient Rome was Victoria, the things you learn by reading the labels! and if you go to this link you will find out why Nike shoes are so called,

a quick break,

then on again,

marvelling at the ceiling,

we made our way past many works, 

La Vierge et l'Enfant entourés de deux anges, sainte Rose etsainte Catherine, in English, The Virgin and Child, surrounded by two angels, St. Rose and St. Catherine by Pietro di Cristoforo Vannucci, one of so many paintings it is so easy to walk past, we managed to loose each other as I was always walking slowly and taking photographs,

and then I spotted her in this room,

and there she was, Diana, with a painting behind her,

the painting is of course the Mona Lisa,

in other galleries,

the crowds had started to build up, but full marks to the Louvre for allowing members of the public to take pictures, other museums and galleries please take note, I just hate it when I pay a huge admission fee, then have to pay an exorbitant amount for a booklet of the place we have visited as photography is not allowed,

we then made our way along one of the great galleries,

taking in all of the grace and beauty,

of the Borghese  collection,

I had to keep remembering to look up,

we then went to the the Pavillon de l'Horloge,

the exhibition,

takes you through the various stages of the fortresses development through the ages,

the first work was started before 1190 when Philippe Auguste, King of France, 

built the original great wall around the city of Paris to protect it from invaders, and it has grown and changed in use since then,

at various places around the exhibition there are screens that show animations,

of what is here now in the exhibition,

and as it would have been at the time,

there is also a model showing how at one stage in it's development it would have looked above ground,

we then moved on to the Egyptian collection,

both Diana and myself have an interest in ancient Egypt,

Le scribe comptable des grains Ounsou et sa femme Imenhétep, and here is someone we have all heard of, if you are into the series of four films The Mummy starring Brendan Fraser, one of the figures seated above is Imenhétep, the villain in of one of the films,

cats feature very much in Ancient Egypt, in one tomb over 80,000 mummified cats were found,

and another one that we should know Horus, 

'The One Far Above',

we then went back to the exhibition of the history of the building, and came across this well,

which did not seem particularly important,

but it was in a well just like this that the Parade helmet,

of Charles VI, 

King of France from 1380 to 1422 was found, which begs the question why was it down a well?

we continue our walk around,

what would have been the bottom of the moat,

again there were screens taking you through a particular stage of the buildings development,

we then came to the top side down part, 

of the pyramid,

we decided to make a move, going through the shopping mall to leave guess what Diana saw?

the shop Maxim's,

who sell macaroons,

including some with gold leaf,

Diana was amazed,

so, one of that one, one of that one, you get the idea,

and off we went,

as we started our way across the courtyard,

it started to rain, so a brisk walk,

towards the Paris eye,

we ducked into a cafe in the hopes the rain would stop,

and as we had a window seat,

decided to have lunch,

which was huge,

as was,

the excellent coffee,

and this is the restaurant, Cafe Bistrot,

meal finished as had the rain,

we walked along the embankment,

normally we would be walking down there,

we might be a little wet, but with macaroons in her bag Diana was a happy camper, 

as we walked I continued snapping away,

it was just a shame,

we did not have clear blue skies,

still there is always next time,

we passed the eye,

and stopped on one of the bridges,

for a photo,

or two,

we ate at this restaurant a couple of years ago,

it is amazing how so much water from the rains upstream, 

can have such an effect here,

one thing that was not effected were these floating planted island pontoons,

they just rose up on their moorings as the water deepened, 

across the river,

a T. Rex waits for the flood to recede,

the gangways to the pontoons have been lifted in case debris is caught in them,

we were passing passing the stature of a Zouave soldier, 

he is a measure of how bad the flooding is in the area, the river embankments are usually is closed when the Seine's level reaches the feet of the Zouave, when the water hits his thighs, the river is unnavigable, during the great flood of the Seine in 1910, the level reached his shoulders,

we made our way past the Russian Orthodox church, 

and the plant building,

which was a bit threadbare, but then it is in the middle of winter,

we passed some of the local restaurants,

as we went back to the hotel,

and found the cat fast asleep,

but he soon woke up,

I just hope he does not tip those vases over,

but he soon settled down,

Diana just could not wait,

to try her macaroons,

'yummy',

after a shower and a change a quick look out of the window to see if it was raining,

and we were off for a walk,

we were not sure what this building was,

but it was so attractive to watch,

as the lights,

changed through,

a kaleidoscope of colours,

before starting again, it turns out it was a department store,

the Eiffel Tower was illuminated,

with it's searchlight cutting through the dark sky,

time for our evening meal,

chicken for Diana,

salmon fore myself,

and for Diana's dessert,

a tiramisu,

 and a crepe for myself,

we next made a move back to the hotel,

and found that I was in charge of the bar, mine all mine!

it appears that in the evening it is an honesty bar,

just help yourself and tell the staff in the morning what you drank the night before, how about that for being trusting, and with that we were off to bed.