Day One Hundred Fifty Four - June 8

As the ship docks in La Rochelle to spend the day, we are still in Paris for the last few hours. Our return train to the port city is at 15:00.

After two sunny warm days in the French capital the weather did not cooperate today. It is raining quite hard.

We have 10:00am tickets for the Louvre so after a quick breakfast we head out just after 08:30 to catch the Metro. Armed with umbrellas and hoods up, it is off to the Louvre. Although it is not our first trip to Paris, it is our first visit to the Louvre to see the infamous Mona Lisa. There was a closer Metro station than what we have used the previous days as such did not get too wet.

Our fast-track tickets allowed us to queue up, but it seems that everyone else had the same tickets. All bags are searched by sending them through a scanner and security is noticeable with armed police patrolling inside the museum.

Lockers (free) were available to place our wet coats and umbrella which was nice. We had decided to meet near the lockers in two and half hours before collecting our luggage back at the hotel before catching our train.

Two and half hours is certainly not enough time to visit a magnificent museum as The Louvre. The museum contains more than 380,000 objects and displays 35,000 works of art in eight curatorial departments. The Louvre receives 2.8 million visitors annually ranking it first nationally and first globally. You may need at least two full days or more to explore, and I suggest finding a guide that can take you through the museum.

The three things of major interest are the Mona Lisa, Aphrodite and the Sphinx.

A headless winged statue greets you at the top of marble stairs on your way to the Mona Lisa Room. I apologize as the name escapes me for the time being. The room with Mona Lisa has security at either exit with roped off lines like airports walking up and down before getting to the picture where everyone stops for a picture or two. Security directs you to the exit afterwards. Make sure to take time to look at the other pictures in the room before joining the line to see the Mona Lisa. Once you leave the room you cannot return except going all the way to the front and coming in again.

A week prior to our visit a protestor threw a liquid substance at the glass covered Mona Lisa.

Pictures of Napoleon's coronation can be found in the museum as well.

Meeting up after our short visit, blue sky greeted us through the windows however it quickly changed as we made our way back to the metro and the hotel.

Three glorious days in Paris with our friends, now it's back to our home Insignia and off to Bordeaux.