Are you sure you don't want to take the kids?

View from Louvre at sunset

Winged Victory

Still my Favorite

View on my walk home

Burning off 2 days of energy

Viva la France

Another Fav

Todd asks me as I am leaving if I'm sure I don't want to take any of the kids.  I think through the idea of bringing a kid/kids with me.  "Yep sure." So I will admit to feeling a little guilty about taking a run early in the day and then jumping out the door the moment Todd walked in to hustle to the Louvre.  But I got over it quickly and scooted out the door.  I decided to walk despite the fact it looked, like always, like rain.  I was in a hurry to get there so I was walking super fast.  Especially for here because no one here walks fast.  They stroll.  I got there around 6:30 it took me 30 minutes to walk there.  I went in through the Pyramid which I normally don't do because it's crowded but it was so late there was no line.  The Louvre has 3 wings that have 4 stories each.  For the last 3 times I have gone there I have been looking for the same Painting.  Joseph the Carpenter.  It's a french painting and I know that it's there I however, don't know how to find it.  I tried to ask some person who worked there but he didn't understand me.  It's not totally bad because now I have an excuse to go back, again.  It was not very crowded.  And as it started to get dark the place started to empty.  Partially I think because it becomes a little creepy.  The place is so big, and it relies heavily on natural light so with the sun going down it became dark, really dark.  It was actually creepy because at one point I found myself in a huge dimly lit stairwell and had no idea where I was.  I was tired and could not remember which wing I was in.  I was flustered and was looking at the "map," which for practical purposes could be a city map.  Finally it occurred to me I had my iPhone, so for the first time I had to use my iPhone to figure out where I was in a building.  I took in all the pictures, crashed in the cafe, grabbed and ham sandwich,  and sat there until finally I could see them shuffling people out.  I debated(again) taking the metro.  But as the sun came out while I was in the museum(rain was not a treat for once) I decided to walk.  Paris is really safe.  Your only real risk is being witness to far far too much PDA.  For one thing there is more police here than anywhere I have ever been.  Plus because we are surrounded by embassies, palaces, and government building so on about every corner there is some guy in a funny blue uniform and hat.  Then there are clusters of guys with machine guns.  It's a little hard to take their police cars seriously.  The range from funky vans with blue flashing lights with the tell tell european siren, to the compact(and I mean REALLY compact) smart car.  I have seen them on horses, scooters, and motorcycles.  But for some reason it's a little hard to take seriously a group of smart cars with flashing blue sirens flying down the street stuffed full of french police.  The machine gun guys however, have my full attention.  Anyhow back to me walking home.  I felt totally safe.  I walked by the river for a while and then got to my route. I tried to time it right because the Eiffel tower sparkles on the hour so at 10 I got to see it sparkle  It's really pretty.  I think it's funny that the french initially hate all these things.  I remember last time we were here people were still talking about how they hated the light show, they also hated the Louvre pyramid, and the Eiffel tower itself.  So if they start hating something take note, it's soon to be super cool and popular.

I watched it twinkle, gave some tourists bad advise on how to get to the nearest metro(oops) and came home.  I found Sierra asleep on Todd, Hannah asleep on the couch, and the boys watching movies.  Today we went to the farmers market.  It's becoming easier, and frankly I am starting to know a little french, at least I catch enough words to fumble through conversations about fresh fruit.  We went to a little park and the kids got out 2 days of compressed energy chasing each other around like crazed beasts. The bakery did not have baguettes ready but said they'd be ready in 15 minutes so Austin and Todd went back to get warm ones upon Austin's insistence.