Louvre & Climbing the Tower

This morning the bakery was closed! So we had to do with the food we still had left from when we left home. With some crisps, peperkoek and other cookies we left the hotel.

When we arrived at the Louvre, there was an extremely long waiting line. We decided to first go to the other place we wanted to visit today: Palais Royal. So we walked there, first walked by the Bureau Tourisme for some information and then into the Jardin du Palais Royal. The gardens were nice and quiet. We sat down in the sun, near a small cannon that was still fired daily as part of some old ritual.

Afterwards we walked back to the Louvre. There was an even longer waiting line above the ground to enter the glass pyramid. So we went back underground through the Carrousel Gallery. We joined the line there, and within 20 minutes we had gotten our tickets, went through safety check and entered the Denon wing of the museum.

We visited some of the highlights and most of the ancient display galleries in that wing. We saw Madonna of the Rocks, Mona Lisa, Venus of Milo, the Egyptian Scribe and more. This angel on a ship is also an important piece of the ancient galleries. After these historical galleries, we visited the wing of Richellieu where we saw displays of decoration art, paintings, sculptures and much more.

Somewhere halfway the battery of my camera went flat, so I continued taking pictures with my girlfriend's camera and my mobile phone. After our visit to the Louvre, we had dinner at McDonald's and then took the metro to the Eiffel Tower.

While night fell, we got in line to climb the Eiffel Tower by stairs. It was an amazing thrill, walking all the way through this structure. It was windy, rainy, but amazing nonetheless. I loved every minute of it and I wish it would have been possible to walk further to the very top. But the stairs stopped at the 2nd floor, and so did our ticket. It was a great way to see Paris at night.