Bonjour from Paris

we are into our 2nd day in Paris - last night, I was too tired to blog, so this will cover yesterday and most of today (it's now about 5 pm saturday here)

The Eurostar train was very comfortable and easy - much quicker for getting from london to paris than flying.  They tell you to arrive at the train station in London 1/2 hour before departure: we had to go through a metal detector, and France immigration, etc.  The train ride was only 2 hrs 15 mins to the Paris train station, which was only a 10 minute walk to our apartment.

The apartment we are renting in Paris is great.  It's in the 9th 'arrondissement' (district), which is walkable to all the main areas of Paris, and close to a subway stop.  It's a small one bedroom apartment, but that still gives us lots more space than a hotel room, and for much less cost.  We find it really interesting to be living in an area with no tourists - it's as if we are locals!

Yesterday (friday) we went to the Pompidou centre, a huge modern art museum, equivalent to the MOMA in New York city.  The building is famous for its unusual architecture: the escalators are in tubes going up on the outside of the building:

This is a view from the rooftop patio of the museum, where there some sculptures (do you recognize the building on the left?):

Here is one of our favourite paintings (by Chagall):

 Around the corner from it is a museum of Jewish art and culture, which we spent some time in.  It had an amazing collection of artifacts, like Ketubot which were hundreds of years old.

After eating out the prior 6 nights, we decided to eat in.  On Rue des Martyrs, a 2 minute walk from the apartment, there are SO many bakeries, grocery stores, cheese shops, wine shops, etc!  It's a foodies' paradise.  Now we know why people rave about Comte cheese so much (it's now Neil's favourite).

Today, we got up fairly early, to get to the Louvre shortly after opening.
The pyramid entrance that you must have seen pictures of, or on TV, really is quite spectacular:

Here is a view of it from inside, near the exit:

and a view of it from the inside of the Louvre, looking out the window:

and one more shot of it, from underneath, as you enter the museum:

The collection of art in the museum is incredible!  Some rooms have so much art, you could spend an hour or more in that room a lone, and there are hundreds of rooms!  Most people make seeing the Mona Lisa their priority, but it's a small painting to begin with, and look how far you are from it (due to the crowds):

this is the second most famous thing to see in the Louvre:

but there is much, much more: we saw so many paintings by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Rubens, Raphael, and others!

After the Louvre, we walked around the Left Bank a bit, and had the most amazing crepes for lunch.  They were being made at a take-out counter of a famous restaurant, and for only 5 euros (about 7 dollars, tax included) they had a crepe filled with a ton of cheese, and egg (spread out and cooked on the griddle), sausage, mushrooms and arugula.

They were so big, Susie couldn't finish hers - but no wonder: it was the size of her head!

Tonight we are having dinner at Cafe Le Dumas, where we are meeting Jeff and Bonnie and friends of theirs.
We are one week in to our trip, so we are at the halfway point!  Time is flying very quickly, but on the other hand, it feels like we have been away a long time, since we have packed so much in.

regards from Paris :)