Josh Bernstein, DDS, Cosmetic Dentist

Now that we are finally over the jet lag and used to European time, our last day of our trip has arrived. Fortunately the “finale” was the Louvre, perhaps the greatest art museum in the world.

This morning, we got up early and arrived before the Louvre opened, so it wasn’t the least bit crowded during our visit. After over-touring the poor kids with a guide and art history explanations at the museums in Florence, we decided to make this an easy tour and just visit the most famous pieces and anything else that struck our eyes—without a guide.

We went immediately to the Winged Victory, which sits majestically on the landing in the Denon Wing. With signs directing their way, the kids then nearly lost us and made a bee-line to the Mona Lisa. The Mona Lisa lives up to her reputation. She was larger than I remembered her and the colors were prettier than everyone said they had become. We stood there in awe for several minutes, face to face with one of the most famous paintings in the world.

Outside Mona Lisa’s gallery, we found several other paintings by Da Vinci that had characters we were convinced must have been the same model as the model for Mona Lisa. Some were women, but one was a man. We passed frescoes by Botacelli and made our way to see Venus de Milo, who has an entire room all to herself since she is so popular.

The one other piece that we really wanted to see was the Parthenon Frieze, but it was really difficult to get the Louvre staff to direct us to this famous piece from the Parthenon in Athens. We were persistent, though, and finally found it, virtually unnoticed in a room with other ancient Greek sculptures.

By this time, the kids had had enough art and museums and we were all hungry so we Metro-ed over to the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs Elysee for lunch. Strolling the Champs Elysee after lunch, we ducked into a number of stores in this world famous shopping district lined with cafes.

We all remembered seeing footage of Lance Armstrong riding down the Champs Elysee on one of his many victory laps of the Tour de France. In our own way, we felt as though this was a fitting ending to our trip. After two weeks of touring so many famous and beautiful sights, meeting so many wonderful Italians and French, we are looking forward to sleeping in our own beds tomorrow night in good old Piedmont, California.

Au Revoir from Paris!