afternoon walk: musee du louvre, jardin des tuileries, obelisque and environs

after sleeping very late this morning, i decided to spend the day doing some low-key walking around - like any other tourist. since this was the first full-fledge sunny day of the trip, i didn't want to spend it inside. so i walked across ponte royal and took in the sights at the louvre and jardin des tuileries on the right bank.

i spent a full day at the louvre during my last trip to paris. so walking around the grounds and the tuileries garden was enough sightseeing for today. then walked down rue de rivoli to find a couple of beer bars that i'd heard good things about. i had lunch at one, le sous-bock, and stopped briefly at a second, au trappiste, before returning to the sightseeing!

i retraced my footsteps on the rue de rivoli to the louvre and continue on until i reached the obelisque at place de la concorde. this place looked incredibly bare with out the huge ferris wheel that had been a fixture here for so long (and the ride was a highlight when katie and pat were with me on my last trip). i decided to skip the walk down to the arc de triomphe (returning to it later in the day as part of my run).

instead, i crossed ponte de la concorde and headed back to my hotel. in an example of truth is stranger than fiction: i asked someone to take my picture with the seine as a backdrop. after he took the photo, i notice he had a 1998 nyc marathon gym bag!! we got to talking and it turned out that the nyc marathon was his only one run in america - but he'd done 21 in total (including the marathon du medoc 5 times)! how cool was it to run into a fellow runner?!

here are some of the pictures: