Paris, The Louvre

One last day to pack, go have coffee and have some food then it would be off to Paris.

We had planned to go to Paris by train but then decided on Ryan Air. I’ve flown on it before and know that it is like a cattle car, that and flying in and out of inconvenient airports, but that was what we decided to do. It actually cost about the same as a train ticket and after calculating the time involved from start to finish, the time was about the same. But then on the plus side we went to Venice (the island) and gave Zaya the gondola ride she’d wanted.

1^st thing in the morning we had tickets for the Louvre. I’d thought that with the crowds down, maybe we could see the Mona Lisa after all.

As it turned out, there were only small lines to see the Mona Lisa, we saw her first, read what was written then went back and viewed her again.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louvre_Palace

The Louvre is quite large with lots of levels. With stairs going up and down we finally found our way to the apartments of Napoleon. We decided that the rooms were just a little over the top!

From the apartment rooms of Napoleon, we were trying to find our way to the café for a cup of coffee and to just sit for a few minutes. We’d discussed with Zaya where we’d go. All of the sudden groups of school kids came along and we couldn’t find Zaya. She’d taken our map and we thought that maybe she’d gone on ahead. After looking around for her and not seeing her anywhere, we went on to the Café with lots of wrong turns, got our coffee convinced that we’d see Zaya at any minute.

After waiting for a little while, I went and checked the stairs, certain that we’d see her, but then thought that I’d alert the staff that she wasn’t with us and not showing up.

Finally, our son Nate called. Zaya knew his number and the staff called him. The staff was already aware that she was missing. Zaya was safe at the lost persons kiosk at the entry.

Fortunately, Kim was just outside the area and had wanted to come back into the Louvre (she’d left by mistake) so she was able to rescue Zaya. Poor Zaya, she was so upset. But it was a good lesson in how not to get separated.