Cinq jours Parisienne (troisiéme)

Monday morning we booked it to the Louvre, though things like sleeping delayed that a bit.  We had croissants and coffee on line, and proceeded to spend the next 4 1/2 hours getting a bit lost throughout the museum.  We did the Mona Lisa, of course, but it was so crowded in that room that "Liberty Leading the People" evinced much more of a reaction from us both.  We also loved Renoir's "La Lecture," which is of two young girls reading to each other.  It was a great visit, though there were points where we had to collapse on an open stairwell to rest our very weary legs.  Very, very big museum.  I think we managed to see the whole thing, minus maybe a room or two of Russian paintings.  

We met up with Andrew for lunch following a quick exploration of Ile St. Louis.  He wove us through enough neighborhoods to end up near the Sorbonne, which is where we found a small park and quickly demolished (collectively) two baguettes and plenty of cheese and fruit.  

As if we hadn't had enough art earlier in the day, the three of us wandered over to the Pompidou, where the modern art museum proved as awesome as any other I've been to (and there have been lots)-- more Serra, a room made of felt, a section on design (how Scandinavian!), and some Yves Klein made me a happy girl.  Emily and I spent about an hour over coffee in the café afterwards, mostly unable to walk.  We did end up walking, though, in the surrounding neighborhood.  We weren't really hungry for dinner, so we had crêpes again and searched for a black purse for Em.

The night ended with a screening of "Casanova" in the hotel-- I highly recommend the new iTunes rental service and the very kind (if not English-proficient) staff of the hotel, who kept an eye on the computer in mid-download while we looped around the block and had apples as the rest of our dinner.