Monday...

No sun today. We awoke to a slight drizzle, so we decided to keep close to the apartment. Grabbed two filling pastries from a patisserie (Pastry Gabrielle) on the island. Our furnaces stoked, we trotted off in the chilly air across the Seine to the Left Bank. We decided that the Louvre would be our indoor activity of the day, so we wove along some Left Bank streets, crossed the Pont des Arts, and descended into the Louvre's giant pyramid.

We discovered that the day AFTER Free-first-Sundays (and in the middle of winter) is CERTAINLY the way to guarantee the fewest visitors at the Louvre. This left us with no lines and more personal space to enjoy the myriad of galleries. We were even able to get close enough to the Mona Lisa to discern details in her face. We stopped long enough to enjoy an unmemorable lunch at a Louvre cafe. Lunch was saved by a warm Nutella and banana crepe for dessert. We stayed in the Louvre until we were shooed back out at 5pm. Dusk had just settled in, so we were able to snap a couple pictures of the Louvre pyramids illuminated.

We rested briefly back at the apartment and then headed out to take some nighttime photos of Notre Dame. We ate a hearty, traditional French dinner on our little Isle at a cozy place near the apartment, and then we walked over into the Marais for a couple of mojitos at Open Cafe.

To bed... To bed... Our eyes are droopy. I am sure we have another fun day ahead.