First Day in Paris

Today we had a small breakfast and then took the metro over to the Louvre (which is a Palace turned Museum).  On the way, we listened to a wonderful Russian group:

We got to the Pyramide Inversee (where the Holy Grail is said to be buried in the Da Vinci code).

We then continued on to the big pyramid, which is the entrance to the Louvre

The first exhibit we visited was the Ancient Mesopotamian exhibit:

Hammurabi's code

We then moved on to the sculptures (my favorite part)

We then saw some Iranian art:

And some art from Cyprus:

Some art from Egypt:

We then moved onto Greek statues, which were very nice:

Venus de Milo

Winged Victory

We then moved on to the massive Italian Painting section of the Louvre (which my Dad and I disliked.  We thought the paintings were kind of boring.)

We couldn’t get a picture of the Mona Lisa because the light was bad and there were too many people.

We then moved on to African, Oceanic and Native American art:

Finally, we viewed some German, Dutch and Northern European art:

After exploring the Louvre thoroughly, we exited the museum, but not before taking some photographs of the exterior:

We then walked though La Jardin de Tuileries, which is a beautiful garden in front of the Louvre.  We took some nice pictures, of course.

Next, we walked down the Champs Elysee, which is a big, historic road that connects to Tuileries.  It is filled with shops and other things:

These are veterans celebrating the flame of the unknown soldier at the end of the Champs Elysee.

At the end of the road was L’Arc de Triomphe.  A huge arch erected by Napoleon:

After leaving L’Arc de Triomphe, we visited the Madelaine (also known as the Pantheon), which is a church designed similarly to Greek Temples:

Finally, we visited Opera Garnier, a beautiful opera where the Phantom of the Opera took place.  It is also known as the National Academy of Music.

After visiting the Opera, we returned to our hotel to rest up for the next exciting day.