Today was our last full day of touring in Paris; to make our flight on Saturday, we needed to leave at 6:30 in the morning. That early departure meant we wanted to have a mellow, and early, evening. But first, the morning.

We went back to the Louvre for part deux of our tour. Monday’s tour of the Louvre was all about statues, mostly ancient ones. Ami wanted to take a closer look at paintings, and that was the focus of our trip this time. Specifically, we looked at Italian Renaissance and French Neoclassical paintings.

Again, having the art hung together in collections was very helpful. All the Italian paintings were in the same galleries, so you could get a big-picture view of the styles. The Italian paintings focused on religious themes and subjects, at least for the most part. The French collections focused more on human subjects.

I love religious art because I understand the material so well — I know the stories the painter is painting. Mer and I even got to explain the story of the Flood and Noah’s ark to an Asian man who was wondering what the picture was showing. I may not know too much about art, but I do know Biblical narratives.

The highlight of the painting galleries for me was that the Louvre has three paintings by Caravaggio — two secular and one religious. I like Caravaggio’s style very much, so I was excited to see the paintings in person. The French paintings were less familiar to me, but almost all of them were painted on enormous scales — paintings ten feet across were not unusual in the collection, and some were over twenty feet across.

We also ducked into the antiquities gallery as we were leaving, so we could see the Code of Hammurabi stone. It is in remarkably good condition for something 3,700 years old. Ami briefly did some shopping in the Louvre gift shop, and then we went around the corner for lunch.

Ami had a friend who happened to be in Paris, and so we waited at the cafe until Kevin got there. He wanted to hang out with Ami, so he came along as we went to the Arc de Triomphe. We had never met before, but he seemed a fun and funny guy, so his company was quite welcome. We took the Metro over to the Arc, where we wandered around it for a few minutes. During that time, Mer and I got separated from Kevin and Ami, and sadly, during that time Ami got pickpocketed to the tune of about thirty euros (thirty-five or forty dollars). I’m not sure it would have helped if Mer and I had been in the group, but I was sad she lost that much money.

Ami, Mer, and I walked up the 250+ steps to the top of the Arc, since it was free on our six-day museum passes. Kevin stayed at the base and wandered around in the area. I do not like heights, so although I did make it to the top of the monument, I did not stay too long. I waited in the “attic” of the Arc, in the small museum and gift shop, until Ami and then Mer came back down.

We met up with Kevin again, and then wandered aimlessly in a neighborhood near the Arc. We found and stopped in at a bakery since Kevin had not eaten, so he ate some bread (which was still warm — he gave us some) while we all chatted. Kevin lives in New York and works in the theaters there, so we were able to talk about plays. After the bakery, we went back to the Metro, where we said goodbye to Kevin before heading back to the apartment to rest and regroup.

Since we wanted a mellow evening, we decided to walk back up the hill to Sacre Coeur. Our taxi driver had pointed out a small square where he said there were good restaurants, so we aimed for that. It felt good to walk without needing the Metro — the walk was only about fifteen minutes. With a little irony, based on my saying all week that I wanted to go to a spa for my aching neck and back, we passed a massage place two blocks away from the apartment, and they were just closing for the night. Next trip to Paris.

The restaurant in which we ate was almost empty, except for three men playing some game with dice at a table across the room. We thought we were too early for European rush hour, since we were eating around 7:00 and supper in Europe is usually at 8:00 or 9:00, but we found out as we were leaving around 8:00 that they were closing up. We were not the last table out, so I did not feel too bad about that.

We finished the evening at Sacre Coeur, which also meant that we were ending our time in Paris where we had begun it. This time, however, Ami was able to come with us since her knee was working now. We all went inside, and since there was not an active service going on, we could wander around the church some.

It is a beautiful church — it is mostly white stone inside, and what decorations there are are all mosaics. Mer and I saw some amazing mosaics a few years ago in Ravenna, Italy, and these were of the same quality, especially above the altar. The church is only about one hundred years old, so it is good to know that grand churches can still be built.

We took some time to pray up near the front of the church. We found out from a sign near the door, as we left, that Sacre Coeur is a continuous-prayer church:  they have had at least one person at the church praying, every day and around the clock, since the church opened. That is pretty cool.

That was the perfect mellow evening with which to end our trip. We walked back to the apartment, and got things ready, either for packing or for going to bed. Beginning and ending the trip with a great church was a comforting way to frame the vacation.

Oh — and for those who wonder what vacations in Europe look like with us, we ended up walking 51.6 miles in five full days, at least according to the pedometer on my watch and by my tired feet. It almost balances out the hot chocolate and pastries.