Paris, Enfin!

05Apr2005 [france]

Finally went into Paris! It was the first Sunday of the month, so... free museums! Visited the Louvre (or, one floor of one wing, and even it we rushed through -- almost three hours!), the Centre Pompidou (the modern art museum), and saw the Moulin Rouge. Took lots of photos at the Louvre, and a cpl others elsewhere... Check out the photos here

The Louvre is amazing; could easily spend all year there... We spent some time going through Napoleon's Apartments (beautiful!) and the Restoration, then hurried through Renaissance... And of course the obligatory fly-by of the Mona Lisa. (Hilarious how packed that area was compared to the rest of the museum!)

After a lunch break we headed to Pompidou - it's pretty big, so we skimmed through the older stuff (1900-1961) - cubism, surrealism, &c... Lots of beautiful work

Dropped by to get a photo of the Moulin Rouge, but it's in a seedy part of town these days and not very attractive... Then we caught up with one of Tiara's friends who lives in Paris; he took us to a park with a cpl other friends. The park was out on the west (still city, but near the Peripherie) and was packed full of locals enjoying the sun. Seemed really odd until Tiara pointed out the beaches in Australia are the same. We walked back to Gare de l'Est - through some beautiful unseen parts of Paris (ie, where people actually live)

Check out the Paris photos, and as well, I added a few more to the 'Around Town' album