Paris Day 4

Sunday 16th

Since it was the day of rest, we took it easy and slept in until 9 and took our sweet time getting ready, then heading to the grocery store to resupply our breakfast  stash and stopped by a nearby Starbucks (the only American chain I let myself visit) and surprisingly enough they spelled my name right...but T and her mom's were a bit interesting! Our agenda was pretty open so we strolled through a nearby neighborhood while on our way to the Louvre. I really feel that I had several magical moments in Paris, and this was one of them as this particular morning I said "I'd really love to find a market and buy a baguette to munch on as we walk around" and as we rounded the corner we ran into a thriving street market filled with freshly baked items and local produce! It was amazing!

After we split our baguette 3 ways we continued our walk to the Louvre. Surprisingly it wasn't as busy as I'd anticipated and T and her mom were so patient to help me take some silly photos before going in. We bee lined it for the Mona Lisa (is it bad if I say she isn't that impressive?) and then meandered through some French paintings dating back to the 1300's (cray-cray), then over to the Napoleon furniture collection. The Louvre is huge and we skipped a few sections because you could spend all day there and probably not see it all, and we were getting hungry so we headed a few blocks over to a cafe and ate ham 'n cheese sandwiches on the most buttery croissants...oh so buttery! Once our tummies were satisfied we headed over to the Musee D'Orsay. I really loved this museum as it was in the old train station so there was great character to the building! They also had an excellent display of Van Gogh, Renior, and Monet. On the very top floor there was a balcony with some great views of Montmartre but I personally liked the view of it best through the giant clock.

After we'd had our fill of art we walked over to the Invalides, where Napoleon's grave was, snapped a few pictures and continued our walk towards the Eiffel Tower. I think I took about 100 pictures here and several of them are of my very horrible attempts to jump in front of her! Yeah, not my most graceful or flattering moment! After our photoshoot we surveyed the line to to go to the top, decided it was too long, and began our search for a dinner spot. We ended up just a few blocks away at Les Cocettes by Christian Constant and it was DELICIOUS! During my trip here I'd really grown fond of the Rhone wines and their's was so good! We ordered a patee appetizer (my first!) and it was so yummy! Then I had my first veal stew, also quite good. I'm so glad we found this place! We had a truly delicious meal here and it was the perfect place to catch up on our wonderful time we were having in Paris. The atmosphere was very trendy, energetic, and it really seemed like this was "the place to be", I highly recommend if you're ever in the area!