So, we’d seen the structural heights. It was time to see some of the cultural heights too. the day actually started off quite late. C+J had a sleep in, while I went and got breakfast. Well, I think I did. As you may recall, my brain simply doesn’t work on a morning.

Either way, I did remember getting some supplies from Shoppy, namely more water. You know, I’m sure the bottled water companies make an absolute killing from tourists who can’t handle the heat of certain places.

I did also spot something interesting in my random trip through the beer aisle. There were bottles of Leffe, at 9% for something daft like €4.50 for 6 bottles. Whee! I didn’t buy any, however. At least not yet, anyway.

Eventually, C+J surfaced, and we made plans for the day. I wanted to get pics of the Eiffel Tower from the Palais De Challiot, or “that big thing with loads of water in front of it” as I described it at the time. It is only thanks to google Earth that I know these place names, you know!

Anyway, my picture need was satisfied…

It was at this point, the unthinkable happened. Chris *succombed* to the temptation of buying some of those shitty little eiffel towers from one of the street sellers. Even worse, in his rush to get some money out of his pocket, he pulled out roughly €200 out of his pocket. My word. It was like one of those “Everything’s going to turn to shit right about now…”

Thankfully, and somehow miraculously, it didn’t. I had to intervene and pay with the loose change that I had.

After that heart-stopping moment, I took a few more photos, and then we decided to head off to the Louvre, but inside of it this time.

This place is absolutely huge. You enter through the large glass pyramid which is so very famous. Like quite a few places, if you take a bag in, it has to be searched. Or rather, someone looks inside of it to make sure you’re not smuggling a dog in, or something like that. Due to the vastness of the place, we bought our tickets, and walked straight out of the exit, and into the shopping centre in there. Clever, that.

Still, it gave me chance to stock up on camcorder tapes. I only took two with me, and one of them was already full, and the one in the camera was about half full. 90 minutes of video in 4 days – impressive.

Chris almost spent something like €27 on an absolutely huge Chupa Chup lolly. Thankfully, common sense won in the end, and he walked away, sans lolly.

OK, so we made a U turn and went back into the complex itself. Once again, my bag was searched, just in case I can bought “un chien” while I was in there.

firstly, I thought cameras weren’t allowed. Well, in fact I thought that cameras weren’t allowed in the whole place, otherwise I’d taken a lot more photos.

When it became apparent that cameras were indeed allowed, I got Chris to film me so I looked as if I was being at least slightly sophisticated. Once again, it failed miserably.

You just have to take a look at that, and ask yourself, how sunburned is my neck?

It quickly became apparent that we wouldn’t be able to see all of this. One thing we did see is the Mona Lisa. Now, I was expecting something absolutely huge. You know, massive.

It is, in fact, absolutely tiny.

(Image coming soon, it appears I’ve forgot to upload it)

It’s behind bulletproof glass, and two security guards stand alongside it. What is really depressing as that the other artworks in that room obviously get overlooked, thanks to the popularity of the Da Vinci Code.

We walked around as much as we could, until we came to an exit, and then turned back. There are a lot of dead ends in this place.

I do have one question, art fans. What is this?

Every man and his chien was photographing it, similar numbers to the Mona Lisa, but I can’t see why. It’s probably a really famous piece, too.

Thanks to FraserM for identifying it as >Winged Victory of Samothrace

Now, I know I mention toilets a lot in these postings, and I apologise for that (not really), but this is an actual service annoucement, should anyone be visiting the Louvre. I will say one thing. If you have the bladder capacity of a vole, make sure you go to one of the toilets outside BEFORE you have your tickets validated, as there didn’t appear to be *any* inside.

This sort-of cut the trip slightly shorter than originally planned, but there’s a limit to the amount of art you can appreciate in one day anyway.

We left the Louvre behind, and seeing as it was still quite early, we went to find the Pompidou centre. It’s probably the most eccentrically British thing in the entire city. It turns out it’s a massive walk from the Louvre… in fact, let’s bring up google Earth… yes, it’s 1.38 miles away, or at least it is the way we walked.

Now, we don’t know what had happened, but on our way, we passed a shopping precinct with at least 20 police vehicles parked outside it.

After taking a detour down the back alleys and streets, the map led us to its exact location.

And here it is, in all its glory…

The fountain next to it was filled with even more eccentric modern art fountains…

Again, it was getting late, so all we did was examine the surrounding area for a bit and decide to come back the following day. Oh, but the next part was an absolute killer. Thanks to us having to walk 1.3 miles to get to the Pompidou centre, it also meant that we had to walk the same distance back to the boat stop. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so exhaused from walking in my entire life. Even worse is that I was still carrying three bottles of water and two cameras around with me.

The boat stop beckoned, and it was only a few short minutes until the boat arrived. By this time, and this was the only time, it started to rain. Not even that much, just a few spots on the boat’s glass. Maybe the nice weather was about to come to an end…

Despite the boat rides being nice and relaxing, it quickly became clear that this was not the best way to see the city.

We got back to the hotel at roughly 7PM. There was still time to visit the shoppy, and pick up the mere essentials, namely those 9% Leffe’s I mentioned earlier… I got 6, and Chris got 6.

Again, after a quick breather, we went out for something to eat. Now, one of the things I noticed when I picked the hotel and consulted Google Earth, was that there was a place across the road called Punjabs. Like, literally across the road.

I had held off long enough. I just had to try it.

So we made the staggeringly short journey from the hotel to the indian. I ordered Chicken madras, and it was interesting to say the least. I’ve never had a madras where the chicken was still on the bone. Although it was edible, I’d have much rather preferred actuall bits of clicken like you get over here. Strangely enough, C+J’s dishes did actually come with that, but I can’t remember what they ordered.

Now, we were still on the lookout for a cheap “pint”. It’s something that seems to be a rarity in this city. We took a walk away from the hotel in the general direction of um… well, actually, we didn’t know. We just kept walking, checking prices until we found somewhere that actually looked cheap.

This was another faulure. The cheapest “pint” we found was for €7.50. Sigh. That’s amost twice as much as we paid for the Leffe’s. So, we dragged it out, sipping slowly until the alcohol almost evaporated, and we were left with a glass of stagnant French piss. Even the waiter seemed a bit of a misery. Therefore, in our quest for cheep beer, we crossed that direction off our list and headed back to Le Hotel.

Now, the moment of truth. Were these 9% Leffe’s actually drinkable? The answer had better be yes…

I located the bottle opener, which in this hotel, is located on the bathroom wall.

6 bottles of the stuff later, I returned back to my room, switched on Sky News (one of only two English channels received) and promptly fell asleep. Who knows what the next day would bring? Well, me obviously, otherwise there wouldn’t be much for me to type…