Paris - St Chappelle, Jardin des Tuilleries and the Mona Lisa

Ok - was sunny again this morning which was wonderful.  It's Saturday (6 October), and therefore many more people about in the streets and visiting the various places in the city.

We started off by visiting Sainte Chappelle.  It's described as a chapel but it is very large! But very beautiful.

Amazing blue stained glass windows...

Have spent a rewarding time in St. Chappelle we walked along the Siene - at one point going down the steps to walk along the riverside.  We heard the call of a Wagtail... which we later identified as a Grey Wagtail (no pics - too far away), lovely to see.

This seems to be a government/'council' building of some type ?

There were various celebrations around the city to do with the Gendermerie - outside one of their buildings, these old vehicles were displayed.. obviously highly polished for the occasion!

and after strolling through the streets of Paris we came to our next destination - the Jardin des Tuileries which were really lovely and still plenty of colour in the floral borders.  The gardens were originally a clay quarry, but one of the first gardens to be opened to the public.  We also enjoyed them, initially, in sunshine!

Lots of House Sparrows about enjoying the Autumn seed supply!

I espied a Jay gather seeds..

We had lunch (Croque Monsieur with a demi-caraffe of wine - each!! Shame they didn't serve 'glass' quantity)  The cafe is the building at the top of this picture.

Starlings and House Sparrows entertained us while we ate

And then a walk to -

The Louvre.  (it had just started raining as we got there)

Whilst pictures were permitted, we elected not to take many... some how it can detract from looking at the pictures etc.

We walked through the corridors and galleries to the site of the Mona Lisa... there were dozens of people and to be honest, seeing it didn't do that much for me... OK, I can now say I've seen it 'in the flesh' as it were but......

When in Florence, we'd seen two paintings... the second of which was the reverse view of the first picture.  When in the Louvre, we'd just talked about how unusual this was and we'd never seen it elsewhere... within seconds of say this - guess what!! ;)

FRONT

BACK

 An interesting visit!

And finally back to the hotel and later on out to Le Petit Chaise once again for a sumptuous meal (we could try others but this restaurant is sooo good). and yes... a glass of bubbles followed by, just a glass (or two), of wine!  3 courses tonight... delish!!