THE LOUVRE

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The first Sunday of the month is "Free" at the Louvre. How convenient that we just happened to be in Paris on the first Sunday of the month.

Walked down to the corner for the Metro and purchased tickets to get there. We're pretty good at the Metro thingy now, after all we've been on it twice..! Had to change trains and then came out right under and inside of the Louvre. They have this wonderful wide marble lined corridor filled with boutique shops. Interesting that Virgin has a whole corridor of it's own. We ducked into the "Poste" gift shop while Sharon bought me a "Postes” bag. Makes a cool mini computer and jonque bag.

We arrived fairly early but it was obvious that the "Free" word was out, (and Sharon thought it was a well guarded secret!) It was staring to get the crowds but once out of the huge entry hall, under the pyramid and into the galleries it was quite nice and peaceful.

It's a huge, well read monstrously huge building that holds hundreds of people without being crowded and it was once a Palace. Napoleon’s apartment is featured but you soon get tired of the over ostentation and excess. It wasn’t the ‘real’ Napoleon, Bonaparte of course, it was Napoleon III. (or Napoleon the whimp)

OK, Quiz time. What happened to the last of the Napoleon line?
Answer at the bottom.

Fantastic morning and well worth the time, heck, we’d have even paid for it.


Happy Sharon scoring an English brochure and guide.



The queue from the street went all the way around the pyramid.



You can see the people coming in from above. There was mixed reactions when the pyramid was erected there but I like it. Art and architecture didn’t end in the 16th century.



Looking up, the apex.



Somehow, while I was feeling for the energy between the two pyramids, the earth moved and my hand got stuck. The woman in black was really helpful and took my wallet so she could check for phone numbers.

She’ll be back soon.















Great escalators for old football (That's Sawker to some) knees.



Some of the people we met in there…!!!























Then the view back to the Eiffel Tower from a window and back to our place.



The last of the Napoleons’ became attached to the British army as a cavalry officer and shipped out to South Africa for the Zulu war of 1879 with his unit. He was supposed to be kept away from danger and sent along on simple reconnaissance missions. This upset the young hero and on one mission went too close to a small Zulu band and they turned and attacked.
The rest of his troop mounted up and pulled back but Napoleon had trouble getting his feet in his stirrups…… and that was all it took.

They shipped his body back to his mother in England.

I went to visit the Zulu War Battlefields and was on Isandwana Mountain, Dawn, for the one hundredth anniversary, then walked down to Rorkes Drift scene of the siege and defense of the mission there by the 24th Regiment of foot.
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