Départ

ST LUKE'S: Computer's at work have crashed, or at least the software we use to work has, so I figured now is as good a time as any to finish the story of Paris. Four or so weeks late. (This should be amended too over two months late but hey?)

Our last day in Paris the Louvre, the whole Louvre and nothing but the Louvre. ("You can't handle the Louvre!") We were unable to buy our tickets online, apparently you need to do it weeks in advance so they can post it to your home country. Instead we rocked up early to get a jump on the queue. Having entered the building, bought tickets and checked coats with a minimum of fuss we found a cafe to draw up an attack plan.

Three one and a half hour sessions broken up by lunch and afternoon tea. The first session was spent with the da Vinci hordes taking in the renaissance masterpieces. They were, of course, lovely, as were the large scale French paintings housed in the same wing. The pre-lunch highlight however was Canova's sculpture "Love and Psyche". These two beautiful figures coil around each other animated by pure desire. The space between their lips was probably the most emotionally charged space I've ever seen in a sculpture.

After lunch we tackled the Dutch Masters amongst others and while some of the paintings I'd been hoping to see had been rotated out we did see an incredible collection of David Teniers. Situated on the other side of the gallery, it was so quiet it felt like we were in another building.

With our attention almost ruined we refuelled with coffee and cookies and then tackled some of the remaining sculptures, the "Winged Victory of Samothrace", the Islamic galleries and various other archaeological curios. But after about six hours inside an art gallery like the Louvre we were shot. So we left, walked through the Tuiliries and got to the Metro back to the West Bank for one last supper of over priced coffees, crepes and pastries before heading cross town to catch the Eurostar home