Unlike yesterday's early start, we slept in a bit today. We both really needed the sleep though because we stayed up quite late watching the football game last night, and our bodies haven't fully adjusted to the time change yet. Before finally heading out for the day, we had some loose ends to tie up: Erin had some work to complete for the university, as well as an article to write, while James began planning some of the next steps in our journey - including booking a hostel for Monday night in Brussels. (Although Erin will be taking over booking the accomodations in the future, as she later learned that James made reservations for us in two separate rooms at a hostel - one room with 10 mixed dorm beds and the other with 14 mixed dorm beds).
Once our chores were done, we headed out of our hotel, back down the Avenue Jean-Jaurès. we eventually made it to the
Musée du Louvre (the Louvre Museum, pronounced "Looov"), where we saw some of France's collection of precious art from around the world. We also had the opportunity to take some pictures outside of the Louvre's iconic crystal pyramid, which
featured prominently in the movie the Da Vinci Code. Tabitha got into the act with a nice picture, and James and Erin also figured out how to use the timer on their camera after a number of helpful tourists insisted on taking their photo from as far away as possible.
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| The Vaulted Interior of the Louvre. |
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| James and Erin sharing a "together" moment in front of the Louvre's Great Pyramid. |
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| Tabitha takes her own seat before the Louvre's pyramids, as well as one of the buildings. |
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| Erin and James figured out how to use the timer on the camera. |
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| We are unstoppable! Except for gravity, of course (the camera missed that part) |
After visitng the Louvre, we headed down the Jardin des Tuileries (the Tuileries Garden), enjoying the absolutely perfect weather. From the Tuileries, we visited the
Luxor Obelisk in the Place de la Concorde, a 3,300 year-old Egyptian statue which was given to France by the Ottoman viceroy of Egypt.
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| The Luxor Obelisk by dusk. |
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| James looks a little out of place in the Tuileries. |
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| Erin, however, has found a peaceful place to survey the gardens. |
We navigated the six lanes of traffic surrounding the Obelisk, and headed back across the river Seine, as Erin's heart's desire for this Sunday evening was to see Paris, the so-called "City of Lights" at night. We stopped for a quick dinner at a small street-side bistro, and made it back to the Eiffel Tower to see it lit up in all its majesty:
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| The Eiffel Tower by night - in the City of Lights. |
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| Erin and James add their own romance to Paris. |
After we finished (again) at the Eiffel Tower, we walked back across the river, and headed down the much-trafficked Champs-Élysées, which, unlike many of the narrow streets we walked heading to the Eiffel Tower, was filled with people from around the world. We assumed most were tourists, as anyone with work the following Monday was likely home relaxing. On our walk, we stopped into the
Renault museum, filled with early examples of the French automaker's work:
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| The Renault Grand Sport. |
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| The Renault "Cinc" ("5). |
Finally finished with our "light" sightseeing, we headed back to the Louvre to catch the train to our hotel. We admit it - we were slackers on Sunday, logging only 25,040 steps, or 14.62 miles of walking.
