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We had another excellent breakfast at the Artus, before taking the M�tro to the Louvre. In 1190, the "Castle of the Louvre"
was built as a fortress to defend Paris on its west against Viking attacks. In the 1500s that building was torn down, and the
structure that exists there now was begun. Part of the Louvre was first opened to the public as a museum on November 8, 1793,
during the French Revolution. Today, The Louvre contains many world famous pieces of art, including the Mona Lisa,
Winged Victory of Samothrace,
Venus de Milo,
and two unfinished statues by Michelangelo,
the Dying Slave, and
the Rebellious slave.
The Winged Victory of Samothrace was discovered in 1863 on the island of Samothrace and is thought to date from the period 250 BC - 180 BC. It is a marble sculpture of the Greek godess Nike (Victory). Despite the sculpture's missing head and arms, it is considered one of the great surviving masterpieces of Greek sculpture from the Hellenistic period.
The Venus de Milo is one of the most famous marble sculptures from ancient Greece. The statue was found in two pieces on the Aegean island of Milos in 1830 and dates to about 130 BC. It is believed to depict Aphrodite, the Greek godess of love and beauty.
The unfinished statues by Michelangelo were commissioned by Pope Julius II who planned to build a massive tomb with 48 huge statues, crowned by a grand statue of himself, and have it placed in the center of St. Peter's Basilica.
When the pope died in 1513, the work had barely been started, and the project was never completed.
The Crystal Pyramid is a relatively late addition to the Louvre. It was inaugurated in 1989, and was designed and built by I. M. Pei,
the same architect who designed the NCAR Mesa Lab buildings in Boulder, CO, where our wedding reception was held.
After leaving the Louvre we wandered briefly through Tuileries
before heading to the Pompidou art center. On the way to the Pompidou, we stopped for lunch and had
onion soup, quiche lorraine, and two Fantas.
 The Pompidou Center is one of Europe's premiere museums for twentieth century art and was included on the Musee pass that we had purchased.
The pipes, ducts, and escalators run along the outside of the building in order to maximize the space in the interior.
Air conditioning ducts are blue, water pipes are green, electricity lines are yellow and escalators are red. We walked through the two floors
of the museum where the permanent collection is shown and
saw
many
amazing
works
of
art.
We left the Pompidou and returned to the hotel to change into clothes more appropriate for our dinner and cruise that evening.
We arrived at the PARIS VISION Excursion Terminal, turned in our tickets,
and got onto the bus. The bus took us to the Eiffel Tower, where we ate dinner at Altitude 95
before taking a cruise down the Seine River. We had a puff pastry filled with a seafood and potato mix as an appetizer, followed by a chicken breast over vegetables in a brown sauce,
with a generous slice of chocolate mousse for dessert. Bottles of red wine were already open on the table when we sat down.
At dinner we met Tony and Rachel Payne, a couple from London, who
were taking their first trip to Paris for Rachel's birthday. Tony worked part-time as an Elvis impersonator.
When we finished eating, we still had 45 minutes until the bus taking us to the dock would leave. We told Rachel and Tony that we would meet them
on the cruise and took this opportunity to take some pictures of the
Eiffel
Tower
in
twilight.
We also asked someone
to take a picture of us with the
tower behind us.
The bus arrived, and Tony and Rachel hadn't shown up yet. We were a bit worried but couldn't do much more than get on the bus. As the bus was pulling away,
Paul was thought he saw Tony and Rachel run up to the bus, but he wasn't sure. Luckily, the boat's dock was only a few minutes away, and they
arrived out of breath a few minutes after us. It turned out they had been waiting at the wrong pier of the tower and didn't realize until the last minute. They had chased the bus
and had just kept up.
It rained thoughout the cruise, and although we were kept dry by a clear plastic barrel vault overhead, the rain streaking down ruined the view.
After the cruise, we thought there was supposed to be a bus to take us back to the PARIS VISION Excursion Terminal, but we didn't see one anywhere. Tony and Rachel decided
to take a taxi, and we decided to take the M�tro back to the hotel. We all took pictures
to remember each other before splitting up.
The Eiffel Tower was lit up at night, and we had a great view of it as we walked to the nearest M�tro station.
We made two transfers on the M�tro, hurrying to make the trains before they stopped running. We got back to our hotel and went to bed exhausted.
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