Paris day three - hey it's a couple degrees warmer!

Today started like yesterday with the gym although we ramped up the intensity a bit with cardio, strength and abs! Francis is a good sport and he didn't complain at all. We had a little more time this morning because our first stop on the agenda is meeting a friend a Francis knows in Paris named Terry (closest in English). We met at a cafe not far from where I stayed my first night in Paris. Terry works for Hewlett Packard and frequently travels to the US and that helped since we could all talk English for my benefit. We ordered our lunch; I had the salmon lasagna, Francis had the steak tar tare and Terry got some fish cooked whole.

After lunch we all walked a bit for the food to settle then boarded the Metro for Montmartre and the Basilica of the Sacre Coeur (Sacred Heart). Montmartre is known for the traditional Paris with cobble stone streets and shops. The Basilica sits atop a hill in this area and is the highest natural hill in Paris. It provided a good view of the city. When we entered the Basilica there was a service in session and they had a strict no photo policy..we watched a few tourists get accosted for using their cameras with flash of course. Anyway, we walked around the structure and then admired the view outside. After getting our fill of the Paris landscape we boarded the Metro and headed the Champs de Mars.

The Champs de Mars is at the location of the Eiffel Tower so this is when I experimented with Black and white photography and they turned out quite well. We caught the Red Bus again and were supposed to get off at the Louvre but missed the stop and ended up getting off at the Musee D'Orsay and walking across the Seine river. Our tickets were for 6pm and once again, Francis did the right thing purchasing them early since we joined the small line and were inside quickly. We decided that viewing the Louvre during the evening would be best since it was indoors. Our first priority was seeing the Mona Lisa! We meandered our way through the museum and found the Mona Lisa...it was much smaller than I would have expected from all the movies, etc. It was definitely the main attraction and people were jockeying for a position at the front so they could get a good picture...having a little height at this time is very helpful.

We then moved along the corridors and looked at other paintings and headed towards the Greek, Roman and Egyptian artifacts area. We both figured this would be the most interesting. The Louvre is the most visited museum in the world and has nearly 35,000 objects in an area of 652,300 square feet. This place cannot be seen in one day so you pick out your top attractions and selectively view them. After leaving the Louvre it was getting late so we decided on finding an Asian restaurant in the Asian area of town that Francis had heard of. Well, we never did find the place and nearly being overcome with hunger we decided on Mexican instead! The meal was good and unfortunately, they didn't have French wines available...I was really wanting to try a red wine from France but the selections were all South American...oh well, another trip I guess.

We then headed back to the hotel and packed our things for the check out in the morning. I was getting up early for my flight and Francis was going to accompany me to the Opera station where I would catch the airport shuttle and he would then return to the hotel and sleep prior to check out time. The first photo is me in front of some Egyptian artifacts. The second photos is of the Mona Lisa. The third photo is a funky one taken by accident in the Montmartre area and does capture the cobblestone and our shoes. The fourth and fifth pictures are of the Louvre...the fourth being inside the courtyard while the fifth is outside as you enter through the Arch. The sixth photo is of the Basilica. Tomorrow is an early day.