Missy's Blog: The Louvre

Today the Parc Monceau Academy put down the books and had a field trip. We went to the Louvre. A little research told me that I could skip the line if I pre-purchased my ticket so I went to the billetterie at FNAC yesterday and did that. Kids under 18 are free so that was a bonus. My research also told me that pickpocketing has gotten so bad at the Louvre that the Louvre employees have had greves (strikes) to try to get something changed. Well, one mention of this and Conrad was preparing his backpack like Fort Knox. He padlocked the zippers on his Jansport and hid the key in his sock. We probably could have seen a whole section of the museum in the time it took to get out his iphone and to later put away his sweater. But it added a little excitement to the experience for him and that's all good in my book.
We took the metro to the Louvre and got there early. Piece of cake cutting to the front of the line and getting in. The Mona Lisa was number one on the kids' list so we made a bee line to it. I wanted the kids to see as much as possible as quickly as possible before they were worn out so we decided against the Nintendo DS guided tour that you can rent. We stopped to look at anything that caught their attention and read the descriptions. All of those were in french so I had a good challenge for the day.
Something new I caught on this trip that I hadn't seen before were Napoleon III's appartements and the collection of objets d'art ( fine china, vases etc.) We lasted about 4 hours and then the exhaustion and crabbiness crept it. All in all a great day. Enjoy the photos!