The shop here seams to sell just regular things such as herbs. For such a simple shop, gold lettering is a little over-the-top. What set this shop apart from others and made it a high-end shop was the ability to acquire fruits to sell. Listed in small gold lettering is oranges and lemons. Up until the last hundred years, citrus fruits in this region were not sold because they were not available.

 

We love the bike signals. You need them since you share a lane with the buses. I don't know what the city planner was thinking when he put the bike lane with the bus lane, kind of a David and Goliath situation. Like one museum worker told me the other day when I asked him a history question, "Who knows, the French are crazy." 

This sewer access is over the Louvre museum basement. Hava likes the kids to scream down scary noises to scare patrons of the Louvre. Our boys were all over this.

And like typical tourist, once we looked down the hole, others started coming over, looking down, and taking pictures. They figured since we had a guide, it must be something important. They didn't even ask what it was. They just took pictures while we laughed at them.

Originally a palace, this courtyard also had a hole in the ground for peasants that the royalty would just get sick of. If you complained to much, you were just thrown down this hole and left for good. It was really deep. 

Just a portion of the Louvre which is Europe's oldest, biggest, and second only to the Vatican in number of visitors annually. The Louvre was originally a 16th century palace in the shape of a U.

Napoleon set up an apartment in the Louvre during his day.

The main entrance is underground, below the glass pyramid.

Another view of the Louvre and the little Arc.

In addition to the Arc de Triomphe de l'Etoile, Napoleon had this Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel constructed after the Arch of Constantine in Rome to commenorate his victories.

Home stretch of the ride.

The Tour of Sainte Jacques after a storm on a walk home in Paris. Doesn't get much better than this. A chocolate croissant would make it perfect.