ADVENTURES BY DISNEY - DAY 6

​We were back to early departures with a meeting time of 8:20 am.   We met Alex who would be a second local guide for the next two days along with Valerie.   They said that we needed to be in smaller groups for the next two days so now we had two guides to lead the smaller size groups.

Our first stop for today was the Louvre.  The Louvre was open to the public during our visit but we arrived at opening and used a group entrance. 

I will admit that except for knowing a few of the famous pieces of art in the Louvre, I really didn’t know anything else.   I had no idea that it was formerly a fortress and a palace.  And I had no idea at how large it is.   Alex said that as an estimate of the size if you were to spend just 30 seconds looking at each piece of art in the Louvre, it would take you over 2 ½ months to see everything. 

We had Alex as our guide and he started off by explaining where we would enter was formally the moat of the fortress.   He then lead us through exhibits for about an hour or so.  Of course, the Mona Lisa was part of our tour.   I would say there was about 3-4 layers of people gathered in front of it.  Lewis had us gather together and as other guests would leave, we would move forward until our group was up at the roped off area.  Then we made a little semi-circle and took turns with our pictures and the Mona Lisa behind us.

Walking through what was the moat of the fortress

​We had some free time and then we were off on a little walking tour.   Notre Dame is still not open to the public but we were able to take some photos on the outside.

​We next made our way to the Latin Quarter where we would have a few hours of time on our own for lunch and shopping.  The guides walked us around first to give us a lay of the land, make some suggestions and set up a time / place to meet back. 
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We chose a little café and order two different kinds of cheese fondue.   I cannot imagine that I will ever have a better fondue in my lifetime.   Our table was set up with two small burners, a basket of pieces of bread and we had a long fondue fork.   Then the fondue came out in cast iron pots.  It stayed hot and bubbly the entire time.   It was so so good!
After we were stuffed from fondue, we did a little walking around and shopping.  We even had a little gelato for something sweet before it was time to meet back up with our group.

​Our last stop of the day was the Paris Opera House.   This was a sleeper hit for me.   As soon as you entered it was so big and impressive.   We walked all through the “lobby” area which is like no theatre lobby I have ever seen.  My smaller group was with Valerie this time and she was guiding us around.  This is the one time that the crowds were a little bit of a challenge.   Even in other stops where we did not have a private tour, the other guests were never really an issue.  We stayed with our guides and were fine.   The Opera House on this day was very crowded.   It did make it challenge at times to move around and get a clear view of everything while staying with our group.
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Valerie explained that the next room we were about to enter was where the audience would go to socialize during the intermission.   My mind was blown when we entered as it was nothing like I expected.  It was huge and beautiful and so ornate. 

​We also got a look at the door leading to Box 5 – which would be the famous box of the Phantom of the Opera.
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Unfortunately, there was a rehearsal happening when we were there (yes it is still an operational theater) so we were not able to go into the theater itself.  I would love to go back and see a performance there.

​We were back at the hotel by around 4 pm.   The rest of the evening was on our own.  The guides gave some restaurant suggestions and we looked online at the choices.  In the end, we decided to each at the lounge in the hotel.  It honestly wasn’t that great, but we were happy to stay in and have an early evening as the next day would be a long, full day.