Paris in the Spring?

I finished up my trip to Paris yesterday. The weather was looking bad and since that doesn't make for good outdoor pictures, I decided to take myself back to the Louvre to try to catch what I missed the day before.

The Louvre is just enormous. There are no two ways about it. I arrived at 10 am with a good idea of what I wanted to see. I rented another e-guide and finished up the antiquities (Egyptian, Greek, Roman) before moving on to the Italians and other foreigners. This tour was heavy into Rafael, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo painted 15 paintings in his lifetime and the Louvre has 7. Michelangelo's work is so distinctive, whether it is his painting or sculpture. Here are some pictures of Da Vinci painting and Michelangelo sculpture:

Everything was just stunning. I'm sure the pictures won't do justice to the art. Actually, for me, after two days on my feet going from gallery to gallery, one masterwork looked about like another. It started to become more fun to watch the people watch the art. With that said, here are some of my favorites from day 3:

After the Lourve, I headed back toward my hotel, but stopped for my last meal in Paris. I ended up getting pizza and beer. I know, this is Italian and German, not French, but I was hungry damn it. Put the best of Italian and German cooking in the hands of a French chef and you are in for some good eats.

I stuck around for another beer when it started to rain a bit. By then end of that beer the rain was still falling but I couldn't wait any longer. I covered the camera and headed for the hotel about 5 blocks away. I'd like to say that the rain stopped about half way and it did slow a bit, but that was to make room for the snow.

SNOW!?!. What the hell. I thought this was Paris! In the SPRING! Anyway, I got my things packed, set the alarm and got to bed early. Wake up this morning was 0345. It was still snowing though not sticking to anything but the cars that I could tell. The temperature reading on the way to CDG was between 1.0 C and 0.0 C. I needed no help in translating that, but the road was solid and I made it just fine. I still don't know half of waht the cabbie said on the way out. I just laughed and smiled. "Just watch the road" I'm thinking.

I'm in the airport at 0455 right now. Time to get checked in for the the 0645 flight to Frankfurt and the 1145 flight to CLT. It will be good to get this one done.