Day 4. Visiting the Louvre, the Statue of Liberty and viewing the Eiffel Tower.

After seeing the crowds at the Louvre on previous days, we decided to book our tickets on line for an early time, so we waltzed in fairly quickly in the morning, only to be stunned by the vastness of the museum.

We headed for the Mona Lisa first, but ended up viewing it from afar, unable to cope with the idea of fighting the crowds already clustered around it for a close view.  Anyhow, there are so many other incredible pieces of art there, we weren't really too peeved.

The quantity and quality of the paintings in the Louvre are impressive and you need to spend several days here to really appreciate all the art.  Some of the works that we enjoyed were the season paintings by Guiseppe Arcimboldo.  (This one is "Summer")

and Francisco de Goya y Lucientes" "Mariana Waldstein, Ninth Marquesa de Santa Cruz".

However, there are also a great collections of other arts to explore:

We finally left, exhausted, after spending about 4 hours

and discovered a shopping centre next to the Louvre which looks promising  for another day- the Carrousel.

Next, we went to pick up our tickets for the trip to Brittany, Then, for some weird reason, we decided to visit the Statue of Liberty replica on the  Ile aux Cygnes in the 15th arrondisement..  This statue was given to Paris by the Parisians  living in the USA to mark the centennial of the French Revolution.  We accessed the island from the Pont de Grenelle but, 

in our usual way, we got a little lost getting there. We managed to find this memorial to the Jews and those oppressed during World War Two on the Left Bank,

and admired a lot of canal boats

but we got there in the end.

Strolling back to the station along the island, we had some beautiful views of the  Eiffel Tower

 as did several brides and grooms, who were posing for wedding photos on the Pont de Bir-Hakeim.  This bridge honours the Free French forces who fought against the German Afrika Corps in 1942, and, as well as a very solid and decorated viaduct features this statue, "La France Renaissante".  I thought it looked a bit like the Ride of the Valkyries.  Bob though that the horse looked like the horse was about  to defecate.  Not very romantic, are we?

Dinner was at the seafood restaurant, Le Bar a Huitres.  Very nice indeed !