Overwhelmed by the Louvre: October 8
La vie en rose
Saturday morning starts, as always, with a continental breakfast. Most hotels in Europe include this as part of the fare, and usually consists of rolls and coffee. Some will include more such as cold cereal, eggs, cookies, cold cuts, tea...the more expensive the hotel, the greater the chance you will get more...but not always. Our none-too-cheap hotel in Amsterdam gave us coffee and cookies. The coffee is always much stronger than in the U.S.; steamed milk is more common than cream. In our Paris hotel, the roll was a croissant. We have found that no matter how good the quality of the food, having the same breakfast each day gets a bit tedious after a week.
We walked along the Left Bank of the Seine, browsing through book stalls and bookstores. Most was junk or too expensive, although Al found some military prints he liked. Some of the stuff in the book stalls looked like it has been there on my last visit in '67. Lunch at an Italian restaurant and then to the Louvre for close to three hours. The place overwhelms you; so much art, so many rooms, so many people...the feet ache remembering it all.
Went to a concert in the evening at St Louis en L'Ile, a church on Ile St-Louis, the other island in the middle of the Seine whence Paris grew. The program was promising (Mozart Te Deum, Bach cantata, Vivaldi Concerto for 2 violins), but the acoustics were bad and the group not too good. So we left early and had dinner in a small restaurant just down the block.
