Our first full day start full and ended very full!! We took the metro over to collect our ParisPass and thought we'd start with a bang and began at the Louvre. Words cannot express the scope of this building. It was huge beyond reason and so stuffed full of art it is busting at the seams. We fairly flew through most of the halls and saw some amazing treasures. The Mona Lisa was even better than I expected it would be. Although thronged with tourists, it is so beautiful, colorful, serene and masterful. It was epic! (thanks shawn) other fan favorites were the Venus de Milo, winged victory, and the raft of medusa. All awesome. We discovered a far off little hall with my favorite, Alfred Sisley. There wasn't a lot of the French Impressionism I love because the d'orrsay has it all. So after walking our legs off and because it was sprinkling outside we headed for the said Orrsay. Knowing we only had a second I headed straight for the impressionist exhibit fairly crying with joy. Lo and behold the largest collection of impressionist paintings IN THE WORLD is not on display because of refurbishment of the space. My arg could be heard round the world. Darn! So a little disheartened we headed back to the room to prepare for dinner.
On the recommendation of a friend of Mike's we ate at le coupole - a Paris landmark. It was amazing!!!! We arrived "early" at 7:30p and not long after we were seated it completely filled up. You sit side by side with people you don't know and the atmosphere was bright and cheerful. We chatted with the gentleman on our right and the couple on our left. Both spoke English. Our server look a liking to Mike and they were practically hugging as we left. Mike started with a French onion soup and I had an avocado, crab meat with citrus slices. Yum! Mike then had the house lamb curry and I had the chateubriand. Mike had mango soup for dessert and I had the creme brûlée. We ate slow, visited, laughed, watched the wait staff sing happy birthday to several patrons and had a grand time. The couple near us gave us some ideas for dinner so tomorrow we are eating at Roger La Granouille. That is Roger the frog in French. Yes my friends, frog legs.
Can't wait!
Such fun! I'm crying that the Impressionists are under wraps. Keep an eye out for Lorin's parents who are in Paris this very moment.
ReplyDeleteHow exciting! I was in Costco today and they had a HUGE Mona Lisa print...I thought of you. Something tells me the Costco print isn't near as thrilling as the little original. Enjoy the frog...legs. Ribbit ribbit!!
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