Monday December 8, 2008

Day 3 in Paris, the Louvre. First, a brief discussion of our means of transportation. Bill and Sue don't have a car, so all transport is either on foot, by train known as the Metro, by bus, by cab, or a combination of some or all on any one trip. Most days we walk the mile or so to the Metro station, where we may take a number of trains to arrive at our destination. So far, the public transportation system is very impressive. The French really have perfected both the science and the art of efficiently moving millions of people every day on time and in relative comfort. The trains and stations can be very crowded, cold, sometimes dirty, lots of stairs, but everything is well marked, on time, and fast. Without the over 100 year-old train system, most of it underground, it seems Paris might ground to a halt. Of course, we haven't needed to attempt any of it alone, as Sue is our companion and excellent tour guide. We are lucky dogs.

Back to our day at the Louvre. The Louvre was the former royal residence and later Napoleon Bonaparte. His sumptuous apartments are on display in the Louvre. As you can see from the photos there are also many masterpieces up through the mid-1840's including DaVinci's "Mona Lisa", Michelangelo sculptures, the Greek ancient sculpture "Winged Victory", and the Venus de Milo.