We tried to sleep in a bit this morning since we had to wait until 10 am to pick up the tickets for the Louvre. Once more down to the amazing breakfast. I think an Apple Turnover counts as fruit and carbs and a bit of bacon is protein. What could be better than that, along with French coffee!
We headed off to the Louvre around 9:30 and arrived to pick up the tickets at 9:40 and surprisingly they were already there! So across the street to find the glass pyramid entrance and the Skip the Line, line 🙂 We spent the next 3.5 hours wandering around the corridors with a map that was pretty useless, or probably we just didn’t get it. We tried to find the Mona Lisa to get it ‘out of the way’ so we could enjoy a good wander about after admiring the world famous painting – but it still took us 1.5 hours to get there!
After having a reviving Starbucks coffee in the Museum we headed out to wander the Tuileries Gardens before heading through Paris streets to find the cafe from yesterday, so we could have an early supper and a relaxing beer. After we went back to the Scribe Hotel for showers before going for drinks at the Sceinic welcome reception as we start and finish Day 1 of the Scenic Tour by meeting some of the other cruise passengers.
The Louvre Palace is a former royal palace, between the Tuileries Gardens and the church of Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois. Originally a fortress built in the medieval period, it became a royal palace in the fourteenth century under Charles V and was used from time to time by the kings of France as their main Paris residence. Its present structure has evolved in stages since the 16th century. In 1793 part of the Louvre became a public museum, now the Musée du Louvre, which has expanded to occupy most of the building.
Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, was built on the site of a 16th-century palace, between 1806 and 1808 to commemorate Napoleon’s military victories of the previous year.
The Jardin des Tuileries, is a public garden located between the Louvre and the Place de la Concorde. Created by Catherine de Medici as the garden of the Tuileries Palace in 1564, it was eventually opened to the public in 1667 and became a public park after the French Revolution.
Eglise Saint Roch, built between 1653 and 1740 is a late Baroque church.
Another hot incredible day. The Louvre was great, and so was the cold beer in the late afternoon 🙂