We woke up and tried the boulangerie (bread shop) on the corner of Rue de Fondary and Avenue Emile Zola for a couple of inexpensive sandwiches to go. I learned that poulet is chicken after deciding on the pulled pork sandwich (thinking that it could not be that far off spelling-wise), and Wendy went w/ the ham (jambon). Both came with lettuce, tomato, and cheese. We've both noticed that the cheese on everything is pretty amazing; I suppose growing up with orangey-plastic-individually-wrapped-sliced cheese will pretty much make any Gruyère (seemingly a common cheese used here) taste awesome. We took the Metro to the Madeleine Chapel and ate on its steps. After finishing up and walking through a fishy smelling market that was closing for the day, we made it to a shopping area in the opera house district and wandered through a few of the high-end tourist chocolate/pastry shops (Fauchon being one we remember) and noticed all of the fish themed chocolates packaged and ready for easter. We made our way around a corner or two and found one of Laduree Sucre's locations and went in to choose a few things we had read/heard about. After choosing the caramel, raspberry, and pistachio macarons, we went in blazing for the Saint-Honore and their raspberry, rose, and lychee pastries. We stopped on our way to the Lourvre to put the raspberry one to rest. It was a bit too pretty to eat, but we had to dig in after pulling the rose petal off of the top. The flavors made me want to slap any random old lady found crossing the garden area towards the museum buildings; tart and then sweet rose infused cream with lychee nut. Too bad we could only find a stand nearby with Nescafe powdered coffee to wash it all down - surprisingly since there's an Illy shop in the airport.
Next, we made it through the Lourvre to see works by seemingly all of the Renaissance masters, as well as ancient works found all throughout. Too many to mention here... One thing of note to say here is that the Mona Lisa is bigger than everyone says.
After dragging Wendy through countless rooms of old stuff, I finally got to see the stele with Hammarabi's code inscribed into it (one of the first cuneiform-style sets of laws ever written). Under the Louvre is a mall of all things. One Starbucks frappachino later, we visited the Louvre-mall's La Maison du Chocolat and took note of the large lighting fixtures looming above and their jewelry case style presentation. They also had out their Easter creations for sale.
Oh, there's also a pay-to-use posh bathroom down there in the Mall, too... So, bizarre. Any color/print of toilet paper you can think of.
Post-Louvre, we found a different location of La Mason du Chocolat along the Champs-Elysses, purchased a few bon bons (which I'll list specifically later), and then made it to the Arch d'Trompe where we circled it before finding the entrance to the stairs to the top. Needless to say, we've figured out how everyone stays thin here; lots of walking and not so much fast food. Two hundred and eighty or so steps later, we were on top where we could watch the breakdancers on the street below. We begrudgingly walked back down and tried to rush off to beat closing time at the Eiffel Tower. We'll have to try again tomorrow because our travel guide failed to mention that they stop letting people in the lift thirty minutes prior to closing. Strike one travel guide.
Day 2: Paris, Walking and Walking