This was the new Louvre day. Dad got an earlier start while I finished up my NSERC application, and I joined him at the Venus de Milo mid-morning.

The Louvre is really incredibly beautiful and really incredibly huge. The guide books even tell you not to try too hard to see very much, as you are bound to be disappointed. We could only handle a few hours at a time of armless, noseless sculptures, but made it first through the Roman section, then up to some of the painting gallerys. Of course we had to see the Mona Lisa; I was interested to see it in person to see if the stories I heard were true. The results were mixed. The crowd was not terribly big, though it was more crowded than the rest of the museum (a lot of echoes in the Islamic wing we visited next), but then, that's what you get for visiting in October. And this most famous painting was bigger than I expected, as I'd heard it was quite small (sorry, Jordi).

After a sufficient visit (as we read in one of the guide books, walking slowly with frequent stops tends to wear you out quickly), we headed out of Paris, our goal being to visit the Vimy memorial site during the daylight and possibly catch the tour (we made it for the last tour of the day). I've added this as a separate entry.

By the time you get up to the Somme region, you are within spitting distance of Belgium, so we headed for supper there. It was a quick stop in Tourini, enough time to grab some dinner and read a number of Belgian roadsigns. Not the ultimate way to see a country, but we didn't really have a lot of time at this point. Wanting to be back down South for the next afternoon, we drove to Chartres for the night.