Day 55 & 56: Le Marais, Paris

This post will sum up the two days we were in the second Arrondissement, closer to the center of Paris. We explored the area, and went to the louvre, and had the most fantastic and well executed dinner. We are really loving Paris, as we were told we would. The way we can compare it is like a less chaotic and more elegant New York. 

This was a wall just covered in plants.

A busy street we grabbed crepes at off of Rue de Montorgueil.

We walked through the Royal Palace, or Palais Royale 

And Mike grabbed a quick hair cut at Alexandre's. (Can't go two months without a hair cut!)

Cheese! Fromagerie's everywhere!

And many beautiful bridges. 

The louvre was a grand experience. Certainly the biggest museum I've ever seen with the most masterpieces in one day. This was the way to the gardens and arc de triomphe.

This was the way to the louvre. 

There's the glass triangle fast approaching. 

We bought two day museum passes ahead of time online so we were able to walk right up to security and get in within minutes. There was a long line for the people who didn't already have a ticket. 

Getting hyped up!

There were three wings, and we decided to go to Denon first to get the Mona Lisa out of the way before the museum got busier. On the way was the "Nike of Samothrace" (c. 190 BC). The crowds were tough to get through. 

Beautiful. 

This was the hallway to get to the Mona Lisa. They had 'caution pick pocket' signs. 

This was the best shot I could get as far away as I was. "Mona Lisa" by Leonardo da Vinci (1503-1506). Picture doesn't do it justice. It is very small and behind what looked like 3 layers of glass. 

There was so much to see, it would have taken weeks to stop and look at each. 

We saw a few people replicating paintings in their own style. 

Another masterpiece. The scale of this painting was hard to capture. Consecration of the Emperor Napoleon I and Coronation of the Empress Josephine in the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris on 2 December 1804" by Jacques-Louis David (1806-1807).

Another. "La Grande Odalisque" by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1814). 

Here, he exaggerates the woman’s body to be five vertebrae too long with an impossible pose. Seductive and strange, is her glance saying come-hither or get lost?

 "Liberty Leading the People" by Eugène Delacroix (1830)

We grabbed lunch at a cafe near Denon. Those are not umbrellas on the deck. They are statues. 

The pyramid from the inside

Venus de Milo "Aphrodite" (c. 130-100 BC). 

The Sphinx. 

pyramid bricks underground. 

"The Seated Scribe" from Saqqara (4th Dynasty 2620–2500 BC). Old!

Rembrandt. Surprisingly nobody was in this room. There was one guy admiring it from afar.

Self portrait of Rembrandt.

Rubens. 

Napoleon apartments.

This was one of the coolest ceilings I've ever seen. There were stunning reliefs, in the astrological signs, paintings, and gold. And Mike taking a photo. 

"Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss" by Antonio Canova (1793).

The courtyard of the louvre.

The main center of the louvre.

We went back outside to head to the arc de triomphe before dinner reservations at a very well reviewed traditional French restaurant. 

Fountains, statues, people, and baby ducks!

They were so fuzzy and little. Must've been a few days old. 

Obelisque de Luxour

After we thoroughly enjoyed our meals before dessert. That rum is for my rum cake.

Not the best picture but here's proof that mike ate all of his frog legs! A very traditional French dish. He also had the foie gras as a starter. I had escargot as a starter and I would absolutely order them again at the right place. They told me they get the snails in daily and soak them in garlic butter. Phenomenal. For my main course I had the Turbot with the most delicious white wine and shallot sauce. 

They ran out of the cognac mike wanted for a dessert drink so they gave him a better, more expensive cognac called cordon bleu that probably averaged to €7 an ounce. This was 4 ounces.

Our walk back. 

We're really digging on Paris. Next, we leave Le Marais for a place in Bastille!

Read next: Day 57 & 58: Bastille, Paris, Musee de d'Orsay, & Eiffel Tower