France Randonnée 2013 (aka the France Ramble 2013): Day 8

As the title of this post implies, this day’s activities centered around the Louvre. Your Ramblers hit the trail with a breakfast visit to the local McDonalds. A bacon and egg McMuffin and bacon and beef McMuffin (think bacon cheeseburger with English muffin instead of hamburger buns) later we headed down the Champs-Elysées to look at all the stores and make our way towards the Louvre. It was another hot day in Paris and we hugged the shady side of "le grande avenue". Saw some really cool cars in the Peugeot store. Wish they would bring some of the cool small cars sold here to the U.S.

The Louvre is a really, really large former palace connected to a very large garden called the Tuileries Gardens. We were afraid of the crowds at a place as prominent as the Louvre so we set out to find a museum pass that covers about 60 places in Paris and gives line priority. We received assistance in our quest from a helpful young woman who told us to go back to the entrance, go underground, and go to a small snack shop that sold them. What a find! Under the Louvre is an entire mall as well as multi-story parking facility. We found the shop (and the air conditioning in the mall) and there was no line to purchase the passes. Win! We purchased two passes and rolled right on inside via the underground wonderland. The goals were simple. Hit the highlights and see some Egyptian artifacts for Rambler Jane. We did the big three - Mona Lisa, the Winged Victory and Venus De Milo before viewing what must have been the contents of every pyramid, tomb and barbeque shack in ancient Egypt. Art is impressive but quickly loses its wonder after seeing hundreds of objects.

After the Louvre we hit a Starbucks on the way out to grab some coffee for a caffeine jolt and some sandwiches to refuel. The sandwiches were surprisingly good, and we enjoyed them amidst the flora in the gardens. We decided to walk back to the hotel with our new found energy and hit the other side of the Champs-Elysées for some retail grazing. We also stopped to have a quick libation before hitting the hotel for showers and dinner.

We enjoyed the first Christian Constant restaurant so much we decided to try another. This time we hit up Violin d’Ingres. We did not have reservations so there was some hope in our hearts. We arrived at 7:30 and got a table, not a great one, but a table. The staff did their best to make up for the seating and we had another fabulous meal. Rambler Jane particularly liked the soufflé with caramel sauce she had for dessert--she is convinced that she has reached soufflé nirvana. We wandered back by foot across the Seine and found our way to the Four Seasons George V for a drink.

Some photos from the day. Tomorrow is Notre Dame and Le Tour.