Having learned our lesson from yesterday, we bough some fruit at the local market for breakfast, bought $5 sandwiches for a pack lunch, and made our way to the Louvre.  We took the Metro direct to the Louvre, and bypassed the snaking line to get in at the pyramid entrance.  (One thing Europe has definitely figured out is efficient public transport!) I hate to admit that I am not much of a museum person.  I enjoy looking at the art, but I am not interested in reading every plaque about every piece (which Matt enjoys).  However, I very much enjoyed the Louvre, and we stayed there for about 4 hours - long enough to see about a fourth of the exhibits.  The museum holds 35,000 works of art, and the building itself is quite remarkable.  We saw the the Winged Victory of Samothrace and the Venus de Milo, which are among the most admired sculptures: in their striking depiction of the human form they encapsulate the "Greek spirit."  We also visited some of the paintings, including Italian, French, and Flemish works spanning 700 years of art - Botticelli, Mantegna, Leonardo da Vinci (including the Mona Lisa), Van Dyck, Rembrandt, and dozens more.  We also saw the Marie d' Orleans (1813 - 1839) temporary exhibit - she was an artist herself and a patron of the arts.  And goodness, the personal apartments of Napoleon III opened in 1861 (see photo from the Louvre website).  Amazing.

After the Louvre, we were still cold, and had to find some warm clothes.  We asked a person at the tourism booth for the location of some cheaper shopping venues.  We spent the rest of the afternoon ino the early evening exploring shops down rue Lafayette.  Here, there were lots of eclectic shops, body piercing storefronts, hip-hop culture, and alas - cheap department stores! 

Matt bought a warm sweatshirt to keep the breezy 60° Paris days at bay. I found a small (affordable) bottle of Dior perfume but we left the store without buying it; unfortunately when we returned the store had closed! =(