Paris 2012 - Day 3

Submitted bydkranker onSun, 09/30/2012 - 17:05

Had to get the laundry done again this morning to be ready for the next trip.   Also located another post office to get our souvenirs shipped off and any extras we don't need to be carrying with us.  We also had them stamp our passports to show we were actually in France, they didn't do that at the train station.  Checkout for the hotel was noon, and we just got that done in time.  We walked along Sebastabol and checked out some larger shops along this street.  We ate lunch at the Indiana Cafe on Sebastabol, the service was horribly slow (it was late, maybe close to 2:00 PM, so it wasn't truly lunch time) and I never got the Espresso I ordered, needless to say the waitress didn't get a tip. The food was good, it's a European version of Mexican food, which to me tasted very much like Indian curry and spices, so the influence is certainly there in my opinion, Kristi thought they did pretty good for a European version of Mexican food.  Soon after, we walked the rest of the way down Rivoliti and visited the Louve.  The entrance is a long way around from this side but we found a way though.  We got in and had to stand in line for only a short while in the afternoon.  To our surprise as well, instead of closing at 6PM as it would be on a regular weekday, today being Friday, they were open to 9PM.  It was actually built on the ruins of an old medieval castle, which is something we both learned.  Napolean had the building built to more or less house all the artistic treasures he plundered from across the globe.  One good thing is, they all survived and are all kind of in one place.  The giant Egyptian sculptures and full rooms that have been reassembled are what were amazing to me to have been completely reconstructed on site, after being transported all that way, this was in the Medieval section.  We saw Greek and Roman sculptures, Egyptian Art and artifacts, Mediterraninan and Mesopotamia, Isreali, Italian Renaissance paintings of course (including the Mona Lisa), Islamic Art; which was the special exhibit currently going on, this included mosaics, wooden screens, pottery, glassware and many other creations.  We also visited the 17th - 19th Century Sculpture section, which included some busts of George Washington, and Benjamin Franklin, who was a U.S. Ambassador to France.  Most of these sculpture and commissions were done by royalty of the time.  We remembered we needed to confirm the Pompeii trip we had scheduled next week, so we used a payphone inside the Lourve (all in French of course).  Fortunately I'd brought our itinerary with the number and also had the calling cards we got free from Rail Europe.  We'd used one before to call for the hotel reservation, and was able to get 12 free minutes within Paris, but Internationally (calling Italy for the reservations, we only had about 3 minutes to use on the last two free calling calls). We had our lattes inside the Louve to take a break, and rest our feet, then got back going before the 9:00 PM closing time. We tried to take the subway back a little ways, but our tickets no longer worked.  We thought they'd be good for the whole day, but there must only be good a certain number of hours.  We took a walk back down Rivoliti and found a small cafe and had some steak.  The price for the meal was very reasonable, but the Coke Kristi had was 7.50 Euros!  We walked a little further down to Sebastabol and got a cab heading the right direction (North) to the motel. His meter said 5.00 Euros when we pulled up to the door, but soon changed to 6.40 Euros, so another price gouge, but we got back to the motel safely.  We're staying in Room 101 of the Hotel Regina Opera, Kristi was able to book online to extend our stay in Paris, and we'll be ready for our train to Munich first thing tomorrow.