and the Sorbonne to "la rue Mouffetard". Here I found a row of delicious bakeries and all types of food. We bough pain au chocolate, croissants, baguette sandwiches and a tarte au fraises. With our goodies in hand, we wandered back to the Jardin de Luxembourg, where we lounged beneath the trees on chairs (you're not allowed to sit on the grass) and ate our food. We didn't walk through the whole park, as we needed to be on our way, but we did stop to look at the pretty pond in the center and the statues.
Next we went to our first museum, the Musee National du Moyen Age, where we saw room after room of medieval relics, paintings, armour and artifacts. There were some amazing books here too. The higlight for me was seeing the display of the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries. So beautiful.
This day was really a day for museums, as we then walked to the Musee D'Orsay, an art gallery in a beautiful old train station. We didn't have an abundance of time, so we saw my favourite impressionists, took in the view from the roof top, and then headed back to our hotel to check and see if my luggage was in yet.
No luck though; it hadn't arrived. So, we turned around and headed out to see one last museum, the Louvre. It was a friday and was open late, and free for those under 26, so I didn't feel bad that we hadn't enough time to take in all the exhibits. Instead, we chose the ones we really wanted to see. The Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, the underground moat remains, and a beautiful collection of roman and greek statues. It was nice to look at something other than paintings. Many people have told me that they prefer the Musee D'Orsay to the Louvre, but I really loved the Louvre. When we emerged beneath the glass pyramid, the sun was just beginning to set, and we took a beautiful, albeit long walk (me in flip flops) to the Arc de Triomphe. The view of the sun setting behind it was definitely worth it, though. And, Mike was nice enough to suggest that we walk down one of the side streets, and took my photo as I posed with all the famous designer stores. It was fun to window shop while they were closed.
We then hailed a taxi to Montmartre, and found a lovely little restaurant, out of the tourist zone, to eat at. We had a three course meal, with the best ravioli I've ever eaten, horse meat (which turned out to be steak, thankfully--the waiter didn't speak English and had confused cow with horse), creamy potatoes, and dessert.
We were very tired at this point, at took our cab back to the hotel to get a good night's sleep before heading to Ireland the next day. Thankfully, my luggage had finally arrived.
Our time in Paris was short, but wonderful. We managed to see a little bit of everything, and take in the major sites.
