European Vacation - Part 4 - still in Paris

Day Four - Paris

Since it is in our hotel neighborhood, we had passed by the Opera Palais Garnier several times already at night, but this is the first time we ventured out to the beautiful building in the hopes of getting the tour. Well, as luck would have it, they were closed for a private event. So, seeing the inspiration of the Phantom of the Opera would be limited to circling the block.

It truly is an amazing building. I love the dome.

A short walk and we were at Les Galleries, kind of a department store area. These pictures are of the dome and interior of Les Galleries.





Back to the Louvre to complete our insane goal - we were going to see it all! We covered all the paintings the other day. Today, we are going to the sculptures and everything else!

The collection is just incredible - artifacts from 7000 BC! BC!!!



I absolutely love the detail of this one. It really looks like she's pushing into the cushion - and it's all marble. How do they do that???



This next piece is massive. I think I only came up to the beard of the shorter, uh... I don't know what this is supposed to be. It's not a griffin... No clue.



A couples sarcophagus



In the lower levels of the Louvre, they saved some of the structure of the 'Medival Louvre', when it used to be a castle. Amazing.



This is a model of what the Louvre looked like originally.



OK - this last one from the Louvre is amazing. All marble - but it really looks like she has a veil over her face. I love this one.



After about 6 hours of walking, we headed back to the hotel for a rest. People eat dinner very late there, so venturing out at 9pm for dinner was actually normal, and with all the sightseeing during the day, we adapted to the late meal schedule very easily. From a recommendation from my friend Sue, we took the Metro back to the Latin Quarter area in search of a restaurant called La Taverne du Sergent Recruteur. With sheer dumb luck, we found it within 5 minutes of getting off the Metro.



Let me tell you, dining here is an experience. It's a feast. When you sit down, you are instantly greeted by two huge baskets of food. One is overflowing with various meats - you get a huge chunk of bread, a knife - and you're set to eat as much as you want. The second basket is filled with all kinds of fresh veggies. Guess which basket we tackled? We didn't even touch the veggies. Then you get a tourine of soup. Then you order your entree and dessert. My God, I was stuffed!!! We actually walked back to the hotel from the restaurant. A good 30 minute walk, but we needed it. WHEW!

Bad picture - but you get the gist. All this before the actual meal even came.



Next up, Versailles, the Eiffel Tower, and then back to London.