{"id":906,"date":"2012-03-04T16:57:31","date_gmt":"2012-03-04T21:57:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/frenchbychoice.com\/?p=906"},"modified":"2012-03-11T18:02:07","modified_gmt":"2012-03-11T22:02:07","slug":"first-sunday-louvre-is-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/frenchbychoice.com\/?p=906","title":{"rendered":"First Sunday: Louvre is FREE"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Winged Victory of Samothrace at the Louvre<\/p><\/div>\n

Our morning started out a very predictable visit to the Sunday Boulevard Grenelle market, at least for us. Held every Wednesday and Sunday, this market under the elevated tracks of the Metro between stops La Motte Picquet and Bir Hakeim has everything under the sun. Fish, meat, game, cheese, bread, sweet treats, household items, clothing items, flowers – everything one needs. Here you will find the older generation of Parisians completing their shopping. Much of the younger generation has resorted to the more efficient grocery stores like Franprix or the Monoprix, but today even they are in evidence. \u00c2\u00a0Some vendors are clearly more popular than others, there are long lines waiting to be served. And, just because there is a line, it doesn’t mean that the pleasantries between the vendor and their regular customers will be cut short. \u00c2\u00a0This is the market where we purchased a roasted chicken once and the two brothers running the stand, broke into song – a trick they do for every tourist who purchases from them. Here’s a few samples of items for sale:
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Even fashion jewelry for 2 euros each<\/p><\/div><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

We finished browsing and hopped the Metro to the Concorde stop to walk through Tuileries and see if the boatman and his boats were at the fountain. The skies looked ominous, the wind was fairly strong. As we walked along, we noticed the tents for a show had been erected in Tuileries. We walked over to check out what was going on. of course, you had to have a pass to get in — but it appeared to be the fashion accessory show. Here’s what they had on display outside the tents:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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This hurts my neck - just thinking about wearing it...<\/p><\/div><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

We tried to peek in the tents, but that was not to be. So we headed on to the Louvre which on the first Sunday of every month is FREE! The Louvre is home of the Mona Lisa, Napoleon III apartments, Winged Victory, paintings and sculpture from renowned French, Italian, and artists from all over. The place was jammed and we waited for 30 minutes to get in. The Louvre takes days to see, so it is best to get a plan as you walk in and prioritize what you want to see. My only advice is that despite being surrounded by the finest art, don’t forget to look up to see the ceilings and take in the floors as well. We started out in Napoleon’s apartments<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
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Madame Recamier's salon furniture<\/p><\/div><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

But like I said, when you visit the Louvre, don’t forget to look up at the ceiling and down at the floor<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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And, look down too<\/p><\/div><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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Grey skies over the Louvre through the pyramid main entrance<\/p><\/div>\n

We stopped by the Mona Lisa and a few other pieces we wanted to see again an then headed out near closing time under grey skies and a light rain. We hopped the Metro again, heading toward the apartment. We intended to pick up a roast chicken for dinner but all of the food purveyors along rude Montorgueil were closed. So we relaxed a bit in the apartment until it became a suitable hour for dinner (8PM). While we waited the skies opened up and we had a deluge. So we picked a little bistro (Cafe du Centre) on rue Montorgueil and had our first onion soup of the trip.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our morning started out a very predictable visit to the Sunday Boulevard Grenelle market, at least for us. Held every Wednesday and Sunday, this market under the elevated tracks of the Metro between stops La Motte Picquet and Bir Hakeim … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,4,35,25],"tags":[116,117],"class_list":["post-906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food-sources","category-france","category-museums","category-paris","tag-cafe-du-centre","tag-onion-soup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/frenchbychoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/frenchbychoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/frenchbychoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frenchbychoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frenchbychoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=906"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/frenchbychoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":995,"href":"https:\/\/frenchbychoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/906\/revisions\/995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/frenchbychoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frenchbychoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frenchbychoice.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}