The Louvre, Notre Dame, the Pantheon and the Eiffel Tower

Today was another power day for us. We started our day at the Starbucks attached to our hotel and promptly spilled both coffees (luckily they were both on Eric!). So, after a quick change we headed out to the Louvre. Fortunately we bought our museum passes ahead of time so we were able to get right in and avoid all the lines. We made our way through to see the famous Mona Lisa and took some pictures of some other famous paintings & sculptures. There were so many paintings, it was hard to take it all in. The ceilings were amazing, can't believe how vivid the color of the paintings were considering how old the artwork was.

After a little lunch at Chez Alexandre, we headed across the river to the Notre Dame (no pictures were allowed inside). This was one of my favorite parts of the day, the church was Amazing and the Huge stain glass windows were incredible. We then walked over to the Pantheon where they had a large exhibit of a pendulum and the tombs of many famous French people (like Jean Monnet and Victor Hugo). We walked around the Latin Quarter district for a while and ran into a French college student (as we were asking for directions to get to the Pantheon) and she said that was the most prestigious area in all of Paris. We looked like huge tourists today with our little backpack, map, Rick Steve's Best of Europe book and our camera (luckily we didn't have the fanny pack too!).
On our way back to our hotel, I finally saw my first UPS truck since I've been here and we enjoyed our first Crepe (nutella & banana). We took a little siesta to rest our legs before heading back out. Around 7 we went to a giant overlook where we could see the Eiffel Tower again. We ate dinner nearby at a great French restaurant called Cafe du Trocadero. I had a fromage platter as an appetizer but the brie oddly smelled like brussel sprouts. From our table we had a WONDERFUL view of the Eiffel Tower and among the 2 1/2 hours we were there, we could see it start to light up. Every hour it sparkles with lights for 5 minutes.
After dinner we walked back to the over-look for more pictures at night, it was So pretty and a perfect end to our evening.

To see our pictures from today, click on the link below:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/38097129@N08/