we took advantage of the reduced entry ticket after 6pm on wednesdays, and went to the louvre in the evening after joe finished work. it was actually a great time to visit; we could enjoy the beautiful lights outside the building, and there were fewer crowds.

with three hours to spend at the museum, we headed first to the near eastern sections. as we perused the cuneiform tablets, we came upon a missing one… oh wait, it’s on joseph’s desk!! ha ha! it’s one of the tablets he requested to study on this trip: a hurrian text from ras shamra (a site on the mediterranean coast of syria), to be exact.

gudea.

babylon. check out the feet.

the louvre building itself is a work of art.

of course no trip to the louvre would be complete without a visit to the mona lisa.

i love exploring a city by walking; that way you can find more unexpected things and take a detour whenever you want. while going down the “Grand Boulevards”, i found les passages couverts …indoor shopping arcades built in the 19th century. there were a variety of shops like specialty cookies and candies, furniture, arts and crafts, as well as used books and stamps.

paris is definitely a great place for window shopping, especially now that all the stores have dressed their windows for christmas. i’m sure it would be fun to have a big budget, but looking (and dreaming) is fun enough. there are many fancy chocolate shops:

outside the baccarat crystal store:

many fancy gourmet food stores like fauchon:

and of course the beautiful clothing and shoe stores. louboutin heels… tres chic!

so here we are, in paris! joe will be doing some research work at the louvre, which is an exciting opportunity for him, and of course great for me! we’re looking forward to re-visiting some of our favorite sites, and doing things we didn’t have time to do last time we were in paris for our honeymoon, but also i’ll have time to explore more places off the beaten path. from our home in chicago, we took the bus, shuttle bus, train, airport shuttle, plane, then train again, and arrived safely into the city of light at 9am. we actually weren’t allowed to check-in into our apartment until 5pm, so we had the whole day to spend despite being tired. after dropping off our luggage at an office, we took a walk through the 2e arrondissement, as we didn’t really get to explore this neighborhood last time. we passed many shops, including rue montorgueil (where our apartment is located), checked out the Forum des Halles (big underground shopping centre). it seemed extremely appropriate when we walked by this spot…couldn’t have said it better:

then we walked towards Palais Royal in the 1e arrondissement and took a quick rest in its adjacent garden. love the perfectly manicured trees.

afterwards, we took the metro to see la Defense, a monstrous square building in the financial district. there was a Christmas market on the plaza… first of many Christmas markets i think!

we were definitely feeling delirious at this point, having been up and travelling for 24 hours, but still had a couple more hours to kill. headed back into the city center and went through the 10e arrondissement: walked by the Canal Saint-Martin, kind of a quaint spot in the city, and down to la place de la Republique, a big busy roundabout.

finally, it was time to check-in. somehow we lugged our tired bodies and luggage back to our apartment on rue montorgueil. our reward (view from our window):