The Louvre!  But how to tackle it all in one day…..with three kids…..  And with a late start at that!  We hopped on the Metro, stopped for crêpes on the way, then entered the museum through the sneaky Porte des Lions entrance, which every website told us would mean no lines, no waiting!  Apparently the secret’s out, because we still waited…..

Oh, the mass of people!  But we hit the highlights we wanted to.  It’s just so vast that you can’t get your head around it.  And for some reason, every time I enter the Louvre (ok, it’s only been 3 or 4 times) I get an irrepressible urge to SIT.  Somehow I kept moving, and we LOVED it.

After the Louvre, we wandered back to our neighborhood and ended up at El Chuncho for MEXICAN FOOD.  Woohoo!  Oh, don’t roll your eyes at ME, blog-followers.  We’ve eaten local cuisine for six weeks!  It was time for nachos and fajitas.  And surprisingly, the guacamole was VERY good.

Actually, the day started with a bathroom concert….  Jack discovered that the “hum” created by the lights in the apartment’s bathroom created a perfect “drone” chord.  He provided the melody.  Yes, these kids are musical.

Crêpes.  AGAIN.

He can sing, play the drums, AND bell-kick.

Headed towards the sneaky Portes des Lions entrance, which, of course, didn’t turn out to be that sneaky.

The Coronation of Napoleon, by David.  Massive scale, very impressive.

Dum-dum.

SO many paintings

Go David!

The THRONG around the Mona Lisa.  Sorry.  I don’t get it.

Ellis and Georgia both made their ways to the front of the pressing mass of photo-snappers, with some help from the museum guards.

This is somebody FAMOUS.  Either Greek or Roman.

I got to see Vermeers!  LOVE Vermeer.  Love the Dutch.

The Napoleon Apartments.  I nearly exhausted myself making the, “funny, we almost did our living room JUST LIKE THIS” joke, but no one laughed.

Ellis tugged us around until we found this one, which he’d seen a thumbnail of on the museum map.  He claimed he wanted to see what the shape in the background was.  Uh-huh.  Lots of giggling at this one….

Exiting through the pyramid