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We walked across the river and along its bank for a few blocks to the Louvre. And here
was quite a surprise for me, because I expected an ordinary looking building holding
the world's greatest art. In fact the Louvre is itself the world's largest palace, a
huge thing many, many blocks long, built mostly during the time of Napoleon I-III.

The building itself is very impressive, and out before it stretch the magnificent
Tuileries gardens, forming part of a splendid Esplanade to the Arc de Triomphe at
the other end:

[sketch drawing of the Louvre location]

We spent the entire afternoon in this one area. Started walking through
the gardens - beautifully arranged with marble statuary, lush green trees, huge
fountains where kids play with sail boats - but since it began to rain a little
we thought maybe we should see the Louvre and hope for better weather later.

The inside too is much more impressive than I expected, the collections ranging
over 6 main areas - (1) Greek & Roman antiquities (2) Egyptian antiquities (3) Oriental
antiquities (4) Sculptures (5) Works of art (6) Paintings, the past you usually hear of.
All six are said to be among the best in their fields, but we only spent time in
three of them (1, 5, 6). There are many famous works, and many great ones less
famous. Some familiar ones: the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo sculpture, many
fine Rembrandts, Titians, Van Dyckes, etc. etc. You could spend literally weeks
there just getting acquainted (200,000 listings in all!) but we saw a lot
in 3 or 4 hours too. Annie - we saw the Code of Hammurabi - a huge polished
basult column about 10 feet high, covered with sharply cut figures a little
like Chinese writing figures; I'd have hated to be the translator!

The Champs de Élysees, beyond the Touileries gardens, is the big shopping street (or one
of them), lined with lovely clothing stores and sidewalk cafes. We had a delightful
stroll, looking at all the gay spring styles, watching the crowds of people
sitting or walking along. The city is alive with visitors - you hear as much English
on these streets as you do French (and some German too!) - but there's plenty
of room for them all, and they just melt into the cosmopolitan atmosphere.
At the far end of the street is the Arc de Triomphe, commerating Napoleon's victories.
It is a large version of the Roman arches, has some beautiful sculptured
scenes portraying battles, etc. We took an elevator to the top and had a perfectly
wonderful view of the city - it stretches to the horizon in every direction - is
just incredibly large. From the Arc we took the Metro - subway system back
to the hotel - quite an adventure itself for the first time!

Another combined letter tonight, I hope - the city is so fascinating and I
want to share my impressions while they are still fresh. Lots of love to you all

George