"I ate the last mango in Paris"

It can be said that every Englishman has a tailor and every Frenchman (and woman) has a hair stylist.

There are no Great Clips or Supercuts. Now that I think about I have not a single sign for a  barber or hair salon.. They are national secrets guarded. We may see the Louvre and think we have shared the rich French culture. Realty is that the secret is safe.

Seriously, you can tell the nationality of the tourist next to you by their hair treatment. American hair   is functional. The Japanese hair is simple cut. The German's hair is short..

As you tour the Louvre you notice that there is a Greek Floor, an Etruscan Wing, Northern European Wing, Pharaonic Area, Romans are well represented  including the front of whole building; Flemish and Netherlands area and some interesting and very large paintings by David (mostly, of Napoleons- all of them) and a corridor of French Middle Age paintings. It is hard not to notice that the major attraction are the Italians. Some
guys in Rome and Milan are kicking themselves for having that garage sale and they should have gone to the " Antique Roadshow" instead.

There are more Da Vinci that you almost overlook several. Rafael owns the place. The Michelangelo is easy to miss. There are two great frescoes by Botticelli . It has holes. Apparently, the Napoleon's soldiers were in a hurry to get home.

Great Art does not bring out the best people. I felt sorry for the artists who are in the same large gallery as the Mona Lisa.. "Veronese, I got some good news and bad news, the Louvre has accepted your great painting "The Marriage of Cana". The bad news, no one will look at it since you are in the same room as the Mona Lisa".

Betty noted that when you view several Da Vinci paintings, there is nothing mysterious about that smile. All his paintings of women have it. It is there looking at you in "The Virgin and Child with St. Anne" (by the way Mary has  muscles and big feet) and "Virgin on the Rocks".

Also, fans of Dan Brown, Da Vinci apparently painted all his young men and, particularly, those named "John" looking more like a woman than a man. His "John' in "John, the Baptist" with his finger pointed to heaven has a feminine face.

The Louvre does need to work on that 20th Century standard of Industrial Art, the Men's WC. They will stop any thoughts of safe hygiene. Betty, because the Women's WC was overflowing with opportunity to serve had the chance to view the Men's and it scared her.

By the way, the French use the
word "aussi" a lot in the advertising.

Betty and I do not look even remotely French. But as a great compliment, a lady asked us in broken French (over and over again) "where is the" toilettes"". We accepted her "Merci" as we pointed to the sign. Within twenty feet, Betty, was again asked by a group of 5-6 women for "toilettes" and Betty graciously took them to one. Again, they attempted French with her.

On Wednesday night, we had pizza. It was good. Two young women were wondrous. The pizza maker was a blond woman who worked in a kitchen the size of our second bathroom. All you saw was her blond hair turning right and then left to the oven. The second woman was the bartender, Waitress, dishwasher and greeter. She handles take-outs and nine tables. The sequence goes like this - Conversation, laughter, wine order, water filled, conversation, laughter, order taken, conversation, laughter, menu discussed, conversation, laughter, food served, discussion, laughter etc.

She did it every table. The pizza was good (called a Parma) the event was even better. Again, the Parisian have earned my admiration for their tolerance.

Lunch was at the Louvre. Betty and decided lunch is our big daily meal. I think that our internal clocks need to adjust further.

I screwed up again on the Metro trains - wrong way for one stop. Fortunately, we could get off and crossover to the right train.

The Louvre is impressive. It is the original Mac-Mansion. I can hardly wait to see Versielle.