teamluguy

Aaand, our two weeks were quickly up so we caught a final baguette and headed for the airport. Thank goodness for some frequent flyer perks because there were hours of lineups at every step.  The last boulangerie Farewell luxury hotel with Clarins shampoo! Ice cream twice a day

The Louvre was not part of our initial plan, but we decided to go for it and got some last minute tickets with an entrance starting only 1.5 hours before closing time. So we giddied up and saw as much as we could as quickly as possible. (Maybe 2%>!) Venus de Milo Estelle animating the less exciting (!!) rooms Auntie Jean asks us what we'd bring home from museum's given the chance. This is Lucy's pick from the Louvre. Must be something interesting at the back of this room!?

 Just a few more incredible things we did while in Paris... Evening ghost walk and tour of downtown to learn about the history of graves, rats and murder! More crepes Guy and Alice parked and waiting for Estelle and Lucy to finish shopping (tee hee) Famous bookstore. We managed to go on a day with only a 10 minute lineup to get in.  These little pixelated drawings are all around - not sure the meaning of them, but always a nice surprise. We found Apple Bottom Jeans! In honour of the song the four cousins have been singing all summer (unfortunately we had to leave them for someone else to enjoy) Sacre Coeur Love locks More cocktails Estelle left a tiny mark on the tower (ssh) Looking happy and tired - I think this was a 12km day

This place is pretty incredible. A 1 hour transit trip from downtown Paris, we really enjoyed the gardens, and were lucky to have a well-prepared guide (Alice!) but the inside of the palace, while remarkable, is muuuuch too busy. You get a real sense of being herded through as quickly as possible. And lots of repeats of opulent art which we decided would be more impressive on its own that in the hundreds.  A warning to other tourists: this golden door looks like it leads to a nice cafe and good place to have a snack. Wrong. It leads to 50 euro/person lunch, and an embarrassing situation where we paid for our 8$ water and BOLTED! Early, early start.