The Mona Lisa

What a pleasant surprise to wake up and find it pouring rain outside, so that we could spend the day at the Louvre without feeling guilty about missing the sunshine. The first amazing thing is that we can get on the Metro just steps from our front door and 15 minutes later exit the Metro inside the Louvre museum (or at least directly under it). Knowing that we have a whole year to savor this luxury, we decided to explore just one floor of one wing (there are 3 wings of 4 floors each). The second amazing thing is that our children love museums. They were both so excited to see some of the art in person that we had been seeing in reproduction. Images of the Mona Lisa are pervasive here (in ads, on tourist information booths), so Jonah was excited to know this was the museum with the real thing. For Ella, we had gotten a book out of the library called "Mon petit Louvre" with images and little stories about several of the highlights of the collection. She was eager to seek them out. In the one wing we explored we managed to find the Winged Victory of Samothrace, the Mona Lisa, and the crown of King Louis XV. We were all very impressed by the building itself, and had fun imagining what it must have been like to live there and what use the royal family might have made of each enormous room. After seeing just this fraction of the museum (and fighting huge crowds every step of the way - we are really looking forward to visiting in February, when I imagine the galleries are much emptier) , and after a brief detour to see Canova's Cupid and Psyche (Dara's favorite sculpture) we were pretty tired, but there was one sculpture from the book that Ella really wanted to see. A somewhat lesser known work, it is called Milon de Crotone by Pierre Puget, and depicts an unfortunate Milon who got his hand stuck in a tree trunk. Even more unfortunately for Milon, a lion then came along and bit him on the ... this whole scene appealed greatly to her 5-year-old sense of humor. So, we found ourselves carrying the stroller up and down flights of stairs to work our way over clear to the other side of the enormous palace to see it (darn art-loving kid). It was well worth the hike though, as both this piece and the others in the French scultpture wing are pretty terrific.

One more note, although the stroller is a bit of a headache on the stairs, I highly recommend bringing one with you to any museum you visit in Paris. A stroller is like a VIP card. It gains you immediate access to the front of any line you come across in a museum. The guards will even rope off all of the other poor stroller-less tourists who are waiting in line to get in, to allow the stroller family easier access.

By the time we were done, the sun had come out and we were able to walk home through the Marais on our weekely quest for Challah. Ella remarked that she was glad it had been a rainy day so that every one went to the museum instead of buying Challah that morning, so there would certainly be some left for us (which there was).

I think I had mentioned earlier about Jonah's favorite expression "Oh, fine." He has a new variation on it. For example, if we walk past an ice cream stand, he might say, just out of the blue, "Oh fine. I have chocolate ice cream." It gives the impression he is doing you a favor by agreeing to this. Quite a negotiating tactic!

Also, we had a request by one of our "faithful readers" (and I do just want to say how stunned and flattered we are that so many people love us enough to follow our daily adventures like this! Not to mention the little notes and gifts many of you have sent that make our lives here even happier and make us feel more connected to everyone back home.) for some photos of our apartment. So, I am posting those here (kitchen, living room, dining room).

Finally, congrats to Dante and Darragh on your wedding day! We're sorry we couldn't be there.