Brr!

It was supposed to warm up to nearly 60 degrees and be clear today but it was really very cold and cloudy when we left the apartment. We were bundled up while on the Batobus and heading to Notre Dame. Turns out many hundreds of other people had the same idea. It is a beautiful cathedral but I had never seen it so crowded. After visiting the inside we had an early lunch at a little cafe on the street behind the Notre Dame. We think it is called Cafe Esmeralda and we remembered having hot chocolate there on a previous trip. There are lots of tourist shops and restaurants on this street but this cafe has pretty good food and professional staff.

We wandered purposefully across the left bank to find the Arenes de Lutece. This is a Roman arena that was discovered about 1870. It's off our usual tourist track and a bit of a trek but interesting. We also passed the Pantheon. The bummer of it was that the uphill walk further aggravated a tweak to RT's achillies that happened on the cobblestones in Prague.

Then we floated back down the Seine to the Louvre for an inside visit. Frankly I don't know why we keep trying to see this place. It is an unending maze (we got lost there in 1996 making an endless circle through the Napoleon apartments) and today was not much better. TT then suggested this time we choose one or two works we wanted to see and find those. We focused on sculpture and saw the Venus de Milo and Cupid and Psyche. Winged victory is RT's favorite work at the Louvre but we gave up on it today.

Found a lovely gift in the museum store and a couple of souvenirs on the Rue de Rivoli before returning to our neighborhood by Batobus. We picked up a baguette and fruit, already had cheese in the apartment for a quiet dinner. Tomorrow we may try the Musee d'Orsay or Rodan Museum, both easier to deal with than the Louvre.