Another gorgeous day, and we decided to head out early to the 2nd most famous Paris land mark, the Arc de Triomphe. It was started by Napoleon in 1806 to commemorate his triumph at the Battle of Austerlitz (never heard of it). But the project floundered and the Arc remained unfinished until 1836. However the toilets and audiovisual displays still don't work properly so I don't consider the edifice to be 100% finished even now.
We strolled down the Champs-Elysées and had a coffee at one of the many fancy coffee shops - MacDonalds. I expect the appearance of MacDonalds on the street lowered to price of a cup of coffee by about 5 Euros at every other establishment.
We took a left at the Obelisk and found ourselves at La Madeleine, a huge church designed in the style of a Greek temple. I was surprised by the architecture as I didn't know the ancient Greeks were into Christianity.
After lunch and a rest back at our very central hotel, we went to Musée d'Orsey to see the famous collection of Impressionists painting. There was also an exhibit of early photography (1840-1870) when photographers were trying to show that their craft is fine art. So there were a lot of photos of gown-clad ladies reclining - really awful stuff. I'm surprised photography survived that period.
For supper we went to one of the nearby restaurants recommended in our guide book. One rule for finding a good restaurant in Paris is avoid the ones with the menu translated into English. It was good and busy with French people out for a Sunday evening.
Before it got dark, we had a last stroll around the neighbourhood and into the courtyard of the Louvre where the big glass pyramid is located. If I understand the movie The DaVinci Code correctly, Leonardo DaVinci designed the pyramid and it's supposed to fly or something.
With the unusually great weather and our ideally-located hotel, we really enjoyed the Paris interlude. Tomorrow we're off to Corsica!
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