I know it’s a bit late, but with all the walking I’ve been doing, I can’t believe I’m still awake. So, without further ado, here’s the Louvre!

No really! That’s a model of the Louvre when it was first built in 1100. It was a castle. And it had a beautiful, quiant little town around it with farmland. I could hardly believe it after having been there myself in the current century. PS. Can you spot Piggy?

And here is Jen with Piggy in front of the excavated castle walls. That’s the original Louvre. I think this was my favorite part of the whole museum.

Here’s an aerial view of what remains of the original Louvre. Only two of the four sections is original. The rest has been rebuilt and added onto over 7oo years. The main portion of the Louvre was finished during Napoleon III’s reign and it now looks mostly like it did in the 19th century.
Now, it’s a monstrosity of architecture. But way fun to admire!
I probably walked up about 38 thousand stairs while in the Louvre on Wednesday. No kidding. There are very few elevators, and I felt bad using them seeing as I had two perfectly good legs. So, I resisted until the end when I was on the 3rd floor of the museum at the end of the day. And the floors are not just a floor. The ceilings are gargantuan, which means that I probably actually climbed 6-7 flights of stairs from floor one (it starts at floor 0) to get up to Napoleon’s apartments.


A couple of the rooms in Napoleon’s apartments. Piggy set off the alarm in this one, so we had to gather up and move on fast!

That’s Napoleon’s bed. Cool huh? Piggy couldn’t get closer to the bed, and I figured I had already set off one alarm, we had better not chance it. Especially since the guards here were constantly circling like cultures.
I did get lots of pictures of art work, but I figured that could wait til later, since all my other pictures have been of art work. I thought it would be fun to see how everyone lived in the 19th century.
OH! And out the window of Napoleon’s bedroom, we saw this.

Doesn’t look like much, but if I do this…

That’s right, a Subway sub in France is 2 Euros and 90 cents. There are no $5 footlong commercials here
Well, I’m off to bed, I climbed a HUGE hill today and will post about it later. The Louvre was great, I’m looking forward to going back later and seeing the pyramid all lit up at night. But it doesn’t get dark until after 10 here, so I’m waiting for Saturday when we don’t have to get up early to meet Jeff to take a 5 mile walk uphill.
Goodnight!
oh. You’re still here?
Did you want to see something else?
You’re disappointed I didn’t show you some art from the Louvre?
Are you sure?
Ok, here’s one more.

There, are you happy now? Piggy did get to see her. We didn’t stand in line, so that’s as close as I could get.
PS. Happy anniversary Ben!