A Visitor plus a 1000 stairs

I forget who painted this in the Middle Ages. The faces are all stylized and look similar.
This painting is in the same room as the Mona Lisa. No one seems to stop by to admire her, even though she is pretty and is exposing her breasts. She needs a better publicist!
See--I finally made it close enough to the Mona Lisa to have my photo taken with her.
At last I was close enough to take this!
Rembrandt's self-portrait as an old man.
Rembrandt as a young man.
Here is the largest pyramid at the Louvre.
Paula, petting the lion.

At the Eiffel Tower. We walked up 720 steps to get there.
It's tall. Not the place to go if you don't like heights.


Rodin's garden: the Burghers of Calais.
This is another of Rodin's works, the gates of hell. The Thinker is at the top looking down.

Larry's nephew David visited us for a few hours. He was on his way to Marseille for a math conference and had a stopover here enroute. He took a shower here, then we went off for lunch in the neighborhood. We tried the Lebanese restaurant a few blocks away. It was good. We were happy that David could order in French. We then rushed off to St. Sulpice, the location of David's favorite macaroon shop. We had to try some, too. Then, before we knew it, David had to rush off to meet his train. It was fun having a visitor from home. The macaroon shop has a website: www.pierreherme.com.

After parting with David, we decided to explore the neighborhood we were in. We were right in front of St. Sulpice Church. I had forgotten that it was featured in the Da Vinci Code. The church disclaims some of the mysticism about the astrological clock. It made me want to watch the movie again, though, just to see how the sights were used. We also walked on to the Luxembourg Garden, which was lovely. It is used by the locals for family outings. It has an old palace on it that now houses the Senate. We then walked over to the Delacroix Museum, which was a nice old house of Eugene Delacroix, the painter. It was worth seeing, but doesn't have a big wow effect.

We decided to walk back to our apartment. The Louvre was on the way and our museum passes were burning holes in our pockets, so we went back. This time I wanted to see the Mona Lisa when it wasn't so crowded, Rembrandt, and some other Dutch painters. We found them all this time. The crowds really are less late in the afternoon. We concluded our outing by walking along the Seine. We returned home exhausted, but feeling virtuous enough to eat some treats for desert.

I forgot to say that we began our day by going up the stairs to the Eiffel Tower's second level, 720 steps. The top level is not accessible to the public by stairs or I may have tried it. We enjoyed the views and were pleased that the trek up the stairs did not wind us. I figured it would be fine because of all the stairs we go up and down at our townhouse. I also didn't mention that the Louvre has plenty of stairs also. We went up and down at least 200 stairs there.