Le Louvre et le Basilique de Sacre-Coeur

Another hot hot day in Paris and shortly after breakfast we head out to the Open Tour Bus again to go to the Louvre... again! A short queue and we were inside the lovely air conditioning!!

No-one had to tell us where the Mona Lisa was - it was where the whole crowd was surging. Everyone was walking in one direction, right past the Etruscan and Greek antiquities and through the Italian paintings to get to Da Vinci's piece de la resistance. Even then it was behind a thick sheet of glass and flanked by two security guards. We saw it just so we could say we did, but we weren't particularly interested and certainly didn't queue so we could reach the front of the painting and take a good gander. It just wasn't worth it. And there's a good replica in the science corridor of Our Lady's.

I was more interested in the Egyptian sarcophaguses and Greek statues (surprise, surprise!) and I had my picture taken with Minerva. Reuben had his picture taken with a bust of a Roman emperor, possibly Hadrian but I can't remember right now. He looked super cool in his shades next to this head though!!

Reluctantly after a couple of hours we head out again and find ourselves outside the Musee d'Orsay but we are finding this trip a bit pricey and decide to skip seeing anymore galleries. I was a little disappointed but this was supposed to be a cheap break... We can always just come over again when its a bit cooler!

We make our way back to the buses and head up to Montmartre so we can climb up to Le Basilique de Sacre-Coeur. This place was absolutely gorgeous and much better than Notre Dame, even though I thought I would never think that. It was well worth the hill climb in 30C heat! We stood at the top of the hill for ages, able to see for miles across France. We then sat by the fountain at the base of the Sacre-Coeur and dipped our feet in the water. It was ironic - I had just seen possibly the most beautiful building in France and the best part of my day is sitting with my feet in not-very-clean water next to a noisy family from Holland!