#rndtheworldn44 - Day 40 - Louvre and Picasso

On December 30, our second day in Paris, we strategized our visit to the Louvre successfully!

The day was even gloomier than our first day, but there was no rain, and it was slightly warmer, so we strolled a little more casually than the day before.  We spotted Notre Dame peeping above the rooftops of the Ile de la Cite as we looked east along the Seine past some houseboats:

This time we crossed on the Pont Des Arts, which leads right to the Louvre:

From the inner courtyard, the old towers of one of the wings of the building set the tone for our morning tour:

Inside, we caught our first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower, hiding bashfully behind one of the statues on the upper portico of our wing of the Louvre.  Just below us, we could glimpse part of the Tuilleries Gardens.

We made it a point to get the audio tour headphones for every museum we toured.  Here, David is absorbed in an audio explanation of one of the paintings in the Northern European Painting exhibit:

The central courtyard of the Richelieu Wing of the Louvre is a heart-stopping display of white marble sculpture, tile and facade:

Kathy wondered what deep thoughts were going through this visitor's mind as she contemplated that classic painting:

Once we finished Northern European Paintings, we decided to tour the Decorative Arts exhibit.  The Louvre had been a palace at one time, and there was room after room of opulent extravagance, beautiful in its complex ornateness:

We finished our visit to the Louvre at lunchtime, and, as we crossed back through the central courtyard, Kathy was surprised by an old holiday favorite:  ROASTED CHESTNUTS!  She bought a sleeve and we crunched and munched them on our walk to lunch.

The afternoon's agenda was the National Picasso Museum, which at the time of our visit was taken over by a special exhibit on "Picasso 1932 - Annee Erotique (Erotic Year)."  David was very disappointed that the largest part of the museum was occupied with works from one narrow period in Picasso's life.  While we found some paintings that are famous, many of the works exhibited were lesser known and not overly interesting, and there was a lot of material about Picasso's exhibitions during that period, rather than original works of his.  Even the exhibit on Picasso's own art collection emphasized his collection of other artists' works, rather than his own works.

That being said, there were still some highlights, such as these well-known paintings of Picasso's mistress, Marie-Therese Walter:

The Picasso Museum was north of Notre Dame Cathedral, and we had to pass it to get south across the Seine to our hotel.  We had seen that the cathedral plaza was decorated with a large Christmas tree decorated in blue lights and ornaments, so, as the sun started to go down, we ambled back to our hotel by way of Notre Dame, just to see the colorful lights:

David insisted on another hot, mulled wine as returned to the hotel, so we detoured to Blvd. Saint Germain.  Carrying our hot wine back to the hotel, we ran across a busking band playing some great Dixieland Jazz.  We lingered to listen for several songs.

We had remembered from our trip to Paris long ago that the neighborhood around our hotel was filled with great restaurants - most of which are priced relatively moderately, so we had decided to spend most of our visit having dinner at cafes within walking distance of our hotel.  Our first night, we had discovered a cafe associated with a craft beer shop, and Kathy was pretty eager to have dinner there, which we did.  Needless to say, we enjoyed the beer.

This second night, we found a little cafe specializing in French country cuisine.  Our waitress was also unique and very attentive (especially when Kathy slipped her one or two tips):

But David adamantly refused to share his dessert with the cat or anyone else but Kathy.  It was a creme brulee, and we had it in honor of the creme brulee we had enjoyed our first night to dinner (in the SAME block of the SAME street) with Katie and Matt.  You can see from David's face that the creme brulee didn't disappoint us.

Tomorrow was going to be our big day - New Year's Eve - so we hustled back to the hotel after dinner and got a good night's sleep.