Well, Hello Mona!

Marcy really wanted to go to the Louvre, and I'm glad she did, because honestly, I've been avoiding the place. It is so big that it is just overwhelming. I remember feeling like I was inside an airport last time I went and that it just wasn't enjoyable.

So, Monday was cloudy, I had to be back by 4 to tutor (and Marcy wanted to get a long run in since she's training for the Boston Marathon in April - and is running in honor of my cousin Annie who lives with Rett Syndrome and is a participant in the research study- visit her fundraising site here to donate to this amazing cause!), the Louvre was our perfect destination.

There was no line and the crowds were minimal, so we picked up our maps, bought our tickets, and headed inside with the goal of getting to the Mona Lisa first and then figuring out what else we wanted to see.  Heeeeeeere's Mona (small, isn't she?):

And, honestly, in the 3 hours or so that we spent at the museum, we saw a lot. We made it through many of the paintings, much of the sculpture, and about 2/3 of the Egyptian artifacts.  We stopped to look at things that caught our eyes while skipping the things that didn't speak to us since we knew there was plenty to see.  Here are some of my personal favorites.

 

After the museum, we were starving and Marcy wanted crepes again. I also wanted to try macarons (to my knowledge, we don't have these in the U.S., or if we do, they are not that common) and I saw some in a bakery window as we were walking back to the Chatelet - Les Halles RER.  The sandwiches there looked good, so we ended up getting those instead - we each had a smoked salmon and cheese sandwich that was heated up on a panini grill along with two macarons (I had one chocolate and one lemon). Marcy also got a roquefort (strong blue cheese) tart since she was fueling up for a 2+ hour run later that afternoon.

We found a little bench to enjoy our delicacies and then hopped the RER back to Neuilly-Plaisance where I took the bus to the MJC to work with the kiddos and Marcy headed to the house to get ready for her run.  Returning around 7 pm, I was surprised to see Marcy napping.  I thought to myself, "Wow, I can't believe she ran, showered, and is all napping since I last saw her about 3 hours ago..." Yes, you got it right - too good to be true. The jet lag got the better of her and she gave in to her body's need for sleep (in her defense, she did get up for a short run Sunday morning before mass and jet lag is a killer when you travel).

So, instead of a run, she had a long sieste (nap). Dinner was especially late on Monday (the intention was to eat around 8, but the potatoes and cauliflower weren't fully cooked and then Christine added a cream sauce and baked them in a casserole dish, so 8 became more like 10), but I still managed to get in a tutoring session with Brice from about 10:45 - 11:30 pm before heading to bed...