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So I had planned for us to spend the whole day at the Louvre since the Louvre would be opened till 9pm or so. The ticket for the Louvre allows repeated entries for the whole day, so we could go out for lunch. And for lunch, we were going to Le Cinq for lunch!

It was a cloudy day!

We joined the queue to enter the Louvre and the line moved very fast even though it was a line for security check.
The ticket counter is just under the entrance and queue was rather short. So we quickly got our tickets and headed to the part of the museum where Mona Lisa is on display. First famous art piece we came upon was the Winged Victory.

A sculpture we saw along the way to Mona Lisa:

And a painting amongst the numerous ones on the walls leading to Mona Lisa.

So we were keen to reach the Mona Lisa as the guidebook had suggested we do just that before the crowd arrives at the Louvre. But it seemed that everyone else had read the same guidebook and decided to heed the same piece of advice. 🙄
There was a huge crowd in the hall where the Mona Lisa is. While there was no proper queue, we managed to edge our way to see the Grand Dame.

Ah and she was as small as what the guidebook had said. 😯
Oh well, that was a check on the list of touristy things to do. 😛

I’m really impressed with the paintings from ancient times! How life-like the paintings are! How I wish I could have even 1% of the artistic talents of these great painters!
And there were painters trying to replicate the masters’ paintings.


And then we took our time to enjoy the great art pieces surrounding us.
The other piece of art I wanted to see was the Madonna on the Rocks. I must admit, I quite like the work of Dan Brown and I think Da Vinci Code is brilliant! So, besides Mona Lisa, Madonna on the Rocks was another painting mentioned in Da Vinci Code.

And I liked looking up and seeing lovely ceilings.


And occasionally when we passed by windows, we would take a peek of the world outside.


The Louvre is huge!! Our legs were starting to tire and we headed towards another part of the collection at the Louvre. While I’m not quite sure what we were looking at, I know gold when I see it!

I think there was some restoration works going on and I could not see what lies above.

And what was most interesting in this collection were these crowns.

So then it was time for lunch! Our reservation was at 12.30pm. So we headed to George V. 😛

Le Cinq has 2 Michelin stars and since it was our first trip to Europe I had persuaded the husband that we should at least have a meal at a restaurant that has at least one Michelin star. After lots of research, it seems that there is a pretty good deal for lunch at Le Cinq at Four Season’s George V. According to tripadvisor, Le Cinq offers 3 course lunch set meals at 80 euros per pax. And since I’m so partial towards Four Seasons (we held our wedding at Four Seasons Singapore), Le Cinq it was!
The hotel is beautiful!! We headed straight for the restaurant and luckily Nick had his formal jacket as it was required. Well, we had known this beforehand so we went there prepared. 😀 The restaurant was lovely too!! I’m totally loving the surroundings!

We were seated and there was even a small stool for my cheapo bag 😳
We were then given the menu and only the menu given to the gentlemen has prices of the food items listed on it. No prices on the menu given to me so I didn’t feel guilty at all. Not.At.All! 😐
We had known that the way to go was to order the 3-course meal, so that’s what we did. Then after we placed our order, a waiter came over. Asked if we wanted to start with some champagne. The cost of the champagne was not included in the meal and we just took one glass each! 😯 With no idea of what the price would be!

Then shortly thereafter, the sommelier came over and asked if we wanted wine. Actually we don’t drink that much, so the glass of champagne was really more than enough. So we declined and the sommelier simply raised his eyebrows and said ‘No’? And with a nod, he walked away. I reckon he’s quite familiar with being turned down by a lot of tourists.
So we first had bread. Warm and soft bread which were accompanied by butter with herbs.

The butter cover


The butter


That was a rather big slab of butter!! A bit wasteful IMO. 😐
Then we were served something we didn’t order. I believe it served as a pre-appetiser, because the 3-course meal we ordered comes with appetiser, no?

It was deep fried fish and although it was not full of flavours, it was very fresh and had a refreshing taste as lemon was squeezed onto them. It was quite yummy! I think its complimentary. I had to hold myself back from gobbling the fish down. Sure took a lot of restraint on my part but I was determined not to embarrass myself in such a classy environment. 😉
And we had time to take a few photos and I must say, the floral arrangements in George V Four Seasons are stunning! Apparently, they are rather famous for their floral arrangements.

I had the crabmeat appetiser which was packed with quite a number of flavours. There’s fish roe in addition to the crabmeat and may I just say, I like fish roe alot but do try to refrain from eating too much of them.



I like the burst of flavours from fish roe. 🙂
And this is Nick’s appetiser. I think it was a soup. What a pretty presentation. Just wondering how does one make that white foamy edible stuff.

Yum yum! That made me look forward to the main course. We both had ordered the lobster ravioli because firstly, lobster is expensive in Singapore, hence ordering it ensured we had value for money (in our opinion) and secondly, because the other option was calf’s head. Did I mention we are not that adventurous in eating?!?! I really don’t know if they will serve an intact calf’s head or not. 😯
We were both very happy with the lobster ravioli. The plates were first served with a silver dome cover and after it was removed, a brown liquid was poured over the food.



The lobster was very fresh and simply delicious! The brown liquid seemed like something we could do at home though probably since we normally use soy sauce when stir frying and the food comes out with this similar brown liquid. The brown liquid (not calling it sauce cos sauce in my dictionary, is a bit thicker in consistency) was not salty and it just kind of calms the palate in preparation for the lobster.
We were actually rather full by this time but we still had desserts to be had, or so we had thought. But, the next dish the waiter served resembled nothing like the dessert I had ordered. When he placed the plate down, he said ‘Madame, this is a pre-dessert’. OMG! I have never heard of a pre-dessert before. Wowwwzz! And a rather important piece of information, this is complimentary as well.

So, the pre-dessert was something like a very light ice-cream, nothing too heavy. Phew! 😀
All this time while we were eating, I had been observing a Frenchman who was seated just next to us. He was dining alone in his formal wear. And wow, he sure could eat!! He had his champagne, wine, bread, more wine, more bread, appetiser, main course, and wine, and then he chose a number of cheese from the cheese trolley! Oh, I think he had more bread to go with the cheese!

The cheese trolley


The cheese selection looked amazing! And the way the Frenchman was gobbling it down tempted me to try. But I didn’t because 1) I don’t really appreciate cheese 2) Not sure how much more the cheese will add on to the bill 3) I still had a dessert to go!
And then our desserts:


The only letdown from this meal was the dessert. Both desserts were too sweet for our liking!! Way too sweet! Come to think of it, we really didn’t have any desserts to die for in France! 😦
But all in all, it was a great dining experience and we enjoyed most of the food!
We left Le Cinq at about 3.30pm. On hindsight, we should have walked around the hotel to take a look at the luxurious surroundings.
We were so full! So we walked around in the vicinity in a bid to aid digestion 🙄
And then we came across Abercrombie! I love love Abercrombie! Apparently the French love Abercrombie too, judging from the long long queue!

We walked and walked and I think we stumbled onto Place Vendome.


And we headed back to the Louvre and were back on the grounds by early evening.
Blue sky came out and we hung around the inverted pyramid for some photo taking.


We decided to skip the paintings for the rest of the day and headed to a less crowded area for some sculptures viewing.

The next must-see on the itinerary is Napoleon’s Apartments.
And there were nice sculptures along the way to the Apartments, with lots of space around.


I wonder if Napoleon could really rest in his apartment cos the Apartments are really heavy on the eye. It kinda of overwhelms the mind, body and soul. Maybe that’s why I was never an empress, and never will be. 🙄





And in my opinion, this is the loveliest part of the Apartments.

And towards the exit of the Apartments, there’s Napoleon’s small chair.

I didn’t see this but this is a captivating picture that Nick took.

We got a bit tired from all the walking and the grandeur of the Apartments and we headed out of the Louvre.
But we wanted to see the Louvre when lighted up, so we stayed around the area. It was about 9 pm and the sky was still very bright! 😯
It was still pretty cloudy, the wind was blowing and there’s wide spaces around. It was rather chilly. The lights came on before the skies turned dark.











But the sky was still lighted up and we had gotten too cold to wait for the sun to fully set. Still, it as lovely to see the Louvre and the pyramid lighted up. With that we headed home and rested for the night. 🙂