Wedding Blog

“Arrive early or you’ll never see the Mona Lisa!” That’s just some advice from a friend who visited the Louvre last year. So as recommended by Rick Steves and all of our friends who travelled around Paris, we trekked over to the Louvre at the butt crack of dawn, around 8:00 am. As we were walking there, we noticed that the streets of the city were pretty empty. There were several people heading to work, such as this stylish guy who strutted off to work listening to his iPod.

As we were getting closer to the Louvre, we were anticipating very large crowds waiting in lines and instead, we discovered a pretty quiet front all around the musuem.

It’s so early that the french troops haven’t arrived yet..

So quiet you could hear a pin drop..

Inside the Louvre, there were so many lovely sculptures and the ceilings were so beautiful.

Mr. Bell Pepper bringing out his artistic style with his camera.

We loved the gold ceilings in the sculpture gallery areas.

A detailed shot of one of the ceilings:

You looking at me?

Looking into Napoleon’s Apartment, the Dining Room:

Such a lovely wallpaper design.

Mr. Bell Pepper and I posing outside Napoleon’s dining room.

My favorite painting at the Louvre, the Consecration of Napoleon and Coronation of Empress Josephine.

As we were leaving the Louvre, the crowds started to build up.

Outside the Louvre there is a very large garden with fountains; a lot of tourists and locals sat around and ate baguette sandwiches in this area.

Hehe, this is exactly how I feel like at work:

So many lovely sculptures around the garden.

Here’s a mini car with a slashed tire.

We walked over to the Musee d’Orsay and discovered it was closed on Mondays!

We found an impressive line of sculptures here too.

Next destination, the Arc de Triomphe! We decided to stop by a cafe for lunch and checked out the McDonald’s nearby. We discovered they sell french macaroons and tarts! The prices aren’t too bad but the quality isn’t as impressive as the ones from the local patisserie.

The french love citrus in everything, here’s a Diet Orange Coke.

The magnificent Arc De Triomphe!

We had no idea we had to climb stairs all the way to the top! We were pretty exhausted at this point.

We hopped back onto the tour bus and passed by the Eiffel Tower. Here’s Mr. Bell Pepper getting ready to devour up the entire tower.

A closer shot of the Eiffel Tower:

Photos of Paris taken from the top of the tour bus:

A glimpse of one of the prettiest streets near the Cathedral of Notre Dame.

I loved the street vendors near the cathedral. They sell a lot of souvenir items but you can also find a lot of antiques, old books, postcards, and original paintings here too.

There’s just no room for SUVs in Paris..

*Sigh*, there’s a lot of great shopping in the city!

For dinner we booked two tickets for a boat tour and a 3 course dinner at the Eiffel Tower restaurant. The boat tour wasn’t all too impressive, we couldn’t see anything from the river level but we caught a glimpse of a lot of romantic couples sitting by the river.

It’s about time for dinner! I was starving after the hour long boat tour..

A

Fois De Gras, it looks simple but it’s so rich and delicious!

Mr. Bell Pepper’s first course:

The main courses:

We finished dinner around 10:00 PM and the sun was just about to set! Photos taken from inside the Eiffel Tower structure:

Mr. Bell Pepper took a photo of me waiting outside for the Eiffel Tower to sparkle.

Every hour at night the Eiffel Tower sparkles for about 10 minutes, it’s definitely worth the wait!

I didn’t realize Mr. Bell Pepper took so many photos of me taking photos.

We spotted a lot of carousels and ice cream shoppes in the city..

We left the Eiffel Tower around 11:30 at night and the city was still very crowded. It’s true that Paris is a city that never sleeps! We headed back to the hotel and decided to catch up on sleep and wake up at a more decent hour the next morning, around noon sounds about right! Our next destination and events include the Musee d’Orsay, lots of local shopping and dining in the St. Germain area, and Fete De La Musique.