Paris Day 2

Day two in Paris, we were on our own. We navigated the train and subway and found our way to The Louvre. A little history lesson...The Louvre was originally a palace which was extended over something like 600 years to become what it is today. It is absolutely huge!
Then in 1989, they added this glass pyramid in the center of the complex. Oh, look at that cute man and baby in front of it!

When you enter from the subway, there is this inverted pyramid (and that same man and baby)

The Louvre is way too big to see everything, so you have to map out what you want to see and have a plan of attack, or you can be in there for months.

The Mona Lisa is one of those must sees, but it's much smaller that you'd imagine.

Then you have the Venus de Milo and a Sphinx

Something that I thought was pretty cool, were these artists that were scattered around the museum painting copies of different pieces.

{an inside view of one of the galleries}

I may be a little biased, but my favorite part of the whole museum was the Dutch/Flemish wing. I just love the Dutch artists, like this Vermeer. Oh this picture of a woman making lace makes me excited for our next trip...Brugge, Belgium for Christmas...stay tuned!

{a view out of a window at the Louvre}

When they were excavating to build the glass pyramid, they found that the old medieval walls that the original palace was build over. Here Avery and I are in front of the old medieval walls.

This is a view of about 1/2 of the Louvre.

After leaving the Louvre, we headed down to the Tuileries Gardens. This mini Arc de Triumph is the beginning.

Avery was getting a little fussy in the stroller, so when we saw this carousel in the parks, I knew that was one thing I wanted to check off my Paris to-do list. She enjoyed the short ride.

{mommy and Ave after the ride}

We stopped an I fed Avery with this as our view. And as the sun set, we walked down the Champs Elysees, visiting the many stalls of the Christmas market being held there. Crepes, hot chocolate, beignets from the stalls were our dinner that night.