Paris day 2

All tired and cold today, so decided to spend most of the day riding the buses.

First stop was on the Champs Elysees, after listening to the French reinvent their history in the bus commentary. We were told that the Arc de Triomphe was built to honour Napoleon, forgetting his exile and early death, and then we were told about the Allies marching through it to free Paris, but not the Nazis marching through it nor hanging a swastika from it. Anyway ....

Like spokes on a gigantic bicycle wheel, twelve streets feed into the motorway that circles the celebrated Arc de Triomphe. The most famous of these streets is the Champs Elysees, which extends all the way southeast to the Jardin des Tuileries on the north bank of the Seine.
The designs on the outside are pretty amazing - this one - La Marsellaise - depicts heroically nude French youths fighting against bearded Germanic warriors in chain mail.

We climbed to the top - well we had to didn't we? The views really are spectacular, and it wasn't too cold... hahahahaha!








We ended the day at the Louvre. Spent some time wandering, just looking at things, before going to the Denon wing to look at the Mona Lisa and then up to the Dutch paintings in the Richelieu wing to see the Vermeers (and others). Would like to spend days there. Most intriguing painting we saw, which a young French museum guide explained to us in as much detail as she could manage and we could interpret, was called Gabrielle d'Estrees and one of her sisters in a bath. Gabrielle d'Estrees was the mistress of Henry IV. In her hand she hold a ring given to her by the king as a sign of their bond, and indicates that she believes they will marry. Her sister is pinching her nipple to indicate she is pregnant with the king's child, and in the background the maid is sewing baby clothes. Their marriage was not to be - after giving Henry three children, Gabrielle died in childbirth aged 26.

Walked home. Fell into bed exhausted.

Have to be up early in the morning to negotiate subway to Charles de Gaulle to catch the EasyJet flight to Luton airport for our last stopover in London.