A very nice way to spend a Monday

The temperature in Paris shot up today to a balmy 4 degrees and it was noticeably warmer than the below freezing temperatures of the last few days. We had a bit of an adventure in the morning; the boys decided to go to Napoleon's tomb at the military museum at Les Invalides while us girls set off to the Boulevard Haussmann for a bit of French shopping, then we would all meet up later. Our plan was also to visit the Louvre tomorrow. Heather suggested that we walk instead of taking the metro and it's very lucky that she did, because when we were walking past the Louvre I decided to ask a security guard where we could buy tickets for tomorrow. To my surprise he replied, "Le Musee est ferme toute la journee demain!" Turns out we had misread the guide book! So we phoned James and Ewan who were not yet at Les Invalides and they changed their course to join us. The queue moved smartly and soon we were heading in to quickly pay our respects to the inexplicably popular Mona Lisa before visiting the rest of the museum. We were in the Louvre all morning and part of the afternoon because there is so much to see. There were too many highlights to mention them all; Ewan is very knowledgable about History and Art so it was great that he could tell us about the history and symbolism of the paintings. James was pleased to see Delacroix's 1830 painting "Liberty leading the people" and Ewan told us the story of Gericault's "Raft of the Medusa" which was a very political painting because it criticised the restored and incompetent aristocracy, one of whom had been in charge of the doomed ship. Caravaggio's 1606 "Death of the Virgin" was excellent; it was rejected by the parish who commissioned it because they thought that Mary's dead face was too realistic (the model was a drowned prostitute!) Caravaggio had to flee Paris - I love that all those artists and writers were always having to flee the city when they overstepped the mark! Ewan pointed out that there is more humanity in one of Mary's little fingers than in all the early 20th century modernist stuff like Soutine that we saw yesterday.
I enjoyed the flamboyant Rubens series commissioned by Marie de Medici to tell the (very self-praising) story of her life and turbulent relationship with her son Louis XIII - it was hilarious! Needless to say all turned out well for Marie and her boy and they were reconciled by painting number 15!
I loved the tiny and perfect Vermeer painting "La Dentelliere". I think it's the inspiration for Pascal Laine's book of the same name, which was made into a film starring the very young Isabelle Huppert.
Near the end of our visit we were looking at some of Napoleon III's furniture - although we mainly looked at paintings today there is plenty more to see. I was impressed by a very cute Italian 19th century "bureau mecanique"; a bureau that packed away neatly into a table. Heather wondered why they would need something so compact in a palace and Ewan said "...for the space-saving royal!" which made us all laugh! We had a tasty snack lunch in the museum and by about three we set off back to St Germain de Pres, worn out! We stopped for a drink in the famous Cafe des Deux Magots (pronounced with a hard "g" as the waiter pointed out when I got it wrong!
After a well earned rest we all went out to dinner to "Le Christine" and had a delicious but very filling meal. Heather and I put on our dresses and we looked very chic. I was quite full up after my lamb main course but that didn't stop me from ordering a lovely souffle for dessert! Everyone else enjoyed their meals too, I especially liked the look of Heather's scallops which are called Noix St Jacques in French. We ended the evening with a nightcap in "La Rhumerie".