The Louvre

We had a very long day yesterday at the Louvre.  When we arrived the line-up was about 3 hours long.  Luckily I pre-bought our tickets and we were able to walk right in.  We planned to join a tour group and the attendant told us to return in an hour to purchase tickets.  Of course, when we returned we were advised that the tour was sold out.

In hindsight it was probably for the best.  Instead we picked a few areas in each section and visited those.  The kids really wanted to see the Mona Lisa, so this is what they saw:

That was as close as we got.  If you look really close you can see a red dot in the middle, which is from a camera.  People insist on using their flash, even though you get nothing but glare and you are immediately removed from the room.

We spent about an hour in one of the sculpture areas where the kids [and the adults] did some sketching. Ella sketched a Nymph sculpture, which turned out really good:

We did the "touristy" photo of our fingers on the point of the pyramid.

Afterwards we went back to get ice cream at the place that shapes the ice cream into a flower.  We could not remember exactly where it was, so Ella lead the way.  She found it very quickly.  The store was crowded and there was only one server.  She still took her time and handcrafted each cone into a beautiful flower.  This seems to be a cultural value in France.  Aesthetics are very important.  It is not enough for the ice cream to taste good, it must look good as well.  We noticed this in the city planning, architecture, parks, and fashion.  Mere function is not enough; it also has to look good.