Paris - Bike riding, Louvre, Amusement Park, Champs-Élysées

Big day...

This morning Erin and I got up early and went bike riding.  Paris has a very cool bike-sharing system called Vélib' that allows you to check out a bike and drop it at any station.  And it's only 1,70€ for a 24 hr pass.

We rode our bikes across the river from the apartment to Parc de Saint Cloud:

Back to the apartment, wash up, breakfast, then onto the Metro for a trip to the Louvre.

You won't read or see anything here about the Louvre that hasn't been said before.  It's huge, crowded, stunning and captivating.

I call this "A passel of nitwits ignoring other masterpieces to take a shitty photo of a rather small and unimpressive painting"

Yes, that's the Mona Lisa everyone's stampeding to photograph.

OMG OMG OMG IT'S THE MONA LISA HURR DURR.

The museum had a very nice display of Islamic art and artifacts

Look at the size of the rings in the maille, and the pattern.

Battle helm for a camel (seriously)

Crepes in the park

We walked out of the Louvre, our heads still spinning from seeing so much art.  I believe we saw about 1/5 of the museum and honestly it was all our brains could take after 2.5 hours.

We needed a mental diversion, and we found one.

Now, on to the Champs-Élysées.

The Champs-Élysées is LONG and after a day of museums and amusement parks we had to bail before getting to the Arc De Triomphe.  We'll get it next time.