Paris - The Louvre, Montmarte

Last two days! We headed down the Champs Elysees and spent a full day in the Louvre. I love the I.M. Pei pyramid next to the old palace.

We spent the entire time in the wing with the European paintings. I have always loved "La Grande Odalisque" by Ingres - how amazing to actually see it!

I also crammed into the giant room to see this little bitty picture:

I thought this was hilarious:

Right in the corner of a giant painting! Hee, that puppy is going to get nipped by that monkey!

At the end of a long day of soaking up culture, we walked back to our hotel up the Champs Elysees:

That's Cleopatra's Needle in the centre, and the Arc de Triomphe right behind it, far in the distance. It's two kilometres from the Louvre - a lovely walk!

I did some shopping along the Champs Elysees: I got a cool black cocktail dress in Naf Naf - it's a party dress, though, so I won't be wearing it for a while.

The Arc de Triomphe.

This was a funny sign near our hotel:

"I love my neighbourhood. I pick up."

We had been told that there was dog poop everywhere on the sidewalks in Paris. It wasn't as bad as I'd dreaded, but there was a lot of poop.

The next day, we hopped on the Metro and zipped up to Montmarte:

We'd Seen Montemarte from the top of Notre Dame:
We wanted to see the Moulin Rouge (I love the movie):

That whole street is nothing but sex shops.

While the top of the hill is a tourist nightmare, the side streets are charming:

I grew fond of the neon green crosses (they indicate pharmacies).

We also checked out Sacre Coeur:

It had an amazing view of the city, but because it was such a cold, damp day, my shots are all just haze.

We also checked out the very awesome Salvador Dali museum on Montmarte:

I loved the "Alice in Wonderland" series of etchings and the amazing sculpture.

I bought yesterday's shoes while wandering around at the bottom of the hill, by the way. We had lunch in this authentic Parisian cafe:

How do I know it was authentic? No one spoke English and we were the only tourists! We had Croque Monsieur and espresso.

L and I did pretty good getting by in French. Both of us took it in school (L for 4 years, me for 5) and it's amazing how it comes back. Although there were moments when we just said, "Toilet?" and looked pained.

I liked this graffiti:

It says, "hard sex" on the pig and "pony love" on the chicken. Hee!

Up bright and early the next morning to catch the train back to London. Gare du Nord was a neat-looking station:

Ah...time to go home!

We arrived in London, met up with Mom at our hotel (she'd been on her walking tour in the Cotswolds for the three days), and realized..."Oh my god, I don't have the camera!"

I had no idea if I'd left it on the train or if I'd been pickpocketed (some smarmy guy had tried to sell me tickets for the Tube). The nice gal at the hotel reception called to see if it had been turned in but the train offices were closed - she also sent an email. We finally decided to take the Tube back to St. Pancras station to see if the camera had been found.

We spoke with a policeman, then a lost and found guy, and then finally we found the train's lost and found. We told the man the train number, my seat...he headed to the back to check. As he came out, he said, "What colour was your camera?" and L said, "It's got cat pictures on it!"

And it was my camera!

We had taken some pictures of Inigo (in case we missed him), the first ones on the camera.

And back to fashion....Casual Friday meant I could break out one of my cool t-shirts that I'd gotten at Upper Playground just off Carnaby Street in London:

This one is called "Howl" by Saelee Oh. I love that it has a design on the back too.

I have been looking for a yellow leather jacket forever - I was hoping to find one in London or Paris but no luck. My friend, Karen, was wearing a gorgeous white jacket when I saw her last weekend - I happened to mention my yellow jacket quest and she said that Danier had the same jacket in yellow!

Isn't it gorgeous? It was 1/2 price: $149.00.

Have a great weekend!

Jacket (Danier Leather), t-shirt (Upper Playground), long tee (Mexx), jeans (Seven7, gift from Caro), shoes (Hale Bob), belt (Plum), big gold hoops (gift from L).