Paris Days 4 & 5

Hi all,
we are having a great time in Paris. On Thursday, we walked to the Pere Lachaise Cemetery, along the canal and went via L'Republique monument (they really know how to build monuments and memorials here!). At the cemetery, we saw the graves of Chopin, Jim Morrison, Edif Piaf, Oscar wilde and many more.
From the cemetery we caught the metro into town and walked down from the Bourse to the Louvre. We went inside and it wasn't just the magnificient art works that impressed me, but the building itself is something else! We pushed against the hundreds to get a glimpse of the Mona Lisa (Da Vinci could have made it bigger!!!!). The other great art pieces we saw were: The Wedding Feast at Cana, The Raft of Medusa, The Club Footed Boy, Venus de Milo (and about 5 million othe sculptures) and many other wonderful works. The Napolean III apartments were amazing.
After all this we had a quiet evening back at the apartment!
On Friday, we started by catching the Metro to La Sorbonne. the Sorbonne was an interesting enough building but we were pleasantly surprised when we ran into the Pantheon. It is truly a magnificient building - once a church but now a National monument. Under the Pantheon, in the Crypt are the tombs of the famous French (mainly republicans and a few othe noteworthies.
From the Pantheon, we headed to the Jardin Du Luxembourg, where there is a palace (now I think the Senate building), lovely gardens and the Medici fountain.
Next on the agenda, we walked (sounds like too much walking to me!) to the Hotel des Invalides. In the church is Napoleans Tomb, and a few other famous French people. The whole building for the hospital is massive and is located in a very central place of Paris.
We decided from here to walk to the Ecole Militaire (Military School) and then have another look at the Eiffel Tower and have a late lunch on the lawns. The skies started to get grey so we decided we would cross the river and look at the Tower from the other side. Half way across the bridge it started pissing down, so we seeked cover under the bridge (Pont d'lena).
The view of the Eiffel Tower from the Trocodero side is probably the best. It was getting late in the day so we headed back to our apartment.
In the evening, Andy and Kristin went for a nice stroll along the canal at La Villette. Very romantic!! We had a quick drink with our neighbour, Julian, who happened to be a wine merchant (who could speak really good English) and he gave us a taste of a fantastic red wine they were drinking - sensational!
That's all for now, great win to the Pies! All pics are on the web, and today we are off to see more of wonderful Paris and the tomorrow we'll be on the Champs Elysees watching the finish of the Le Tour de France!
Au Revoir,