The Louvre

Today was wet and grey, although not all that cold.  We headed to the Musee D'Orsay but of course, because this is France, it was closed - it is Monday after all!  So we took a punt on the Louvre instead - turned out to be a good choice.

One great thing in France is that children under 18 dont pay to get into any State Museum.  So the admission to the Louvre was only 22 euros for the 4 of us - good value I think.

It is a huge museum with 3 wings of 4 floors each to cover.  Of course we did all the 'must dos' the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, The Winged Victory of Samothrace, the wedding feast at Cana etc etc. For the first time we also visited the Napoleon III apartments - they are just amazing!! I think even more luxurious and beautiful than some of the rooms in Versailles.  The French Crown Jewels are also there.

There were artists there painting reproductions in front of the paintings they were reproducing, it was great for the kids to watch them.  There werent too many people so we were able to get around quite well, although quite large parts of the museum were closed making it hard to navigate and a couple of times we had to go up 2 floors and come down 1 to move between floors which was a bit hard on the very tired old legs!!

All in all it was a good experience, we didnt eat there, but we did check coats which was fairly painless, and free. Liam found it hard going by the end, he had pretty much had enough but Lily loved it right through which made it easier.  There were young kids on school trips everywhere having a great time which was just fabulous to see, I do wonder though if they will ever grow up to know how lucky they are!!