So I finally got to meet the family of whom I'm living with!  They are super nice and they got home late last night so I didn't want to bother them too much, but today we had breakfast and I played with Nathaniel, their son, who is 16 (and a half) months old.  He's super cute.  It is a small world after all; Thomas, the husband, spent a year in high school studying abroad no where else but Minneapolis, Minnesota!  He obviously remembered all the snow.  The wife, Marie, is very nice too.  Her and Nathaniel left today until Saturday for some more travel.

Since today (Monday) is a public holiday here, no one is working.  The weather is super super nice, but I decided to check out Musee de l'Orangerie.



Before heading inside, just near it is the Place de Concorde.  I took some photos there.  Just down the way is the Arc de Triomphe too but I decided to wait on that.





This little purple guy is made out of mosaic tiles.  I was told that there's a local artist who has placed these in various places around the city.  I'm not sure how many there are in total, but I've found three so far - they're in all shapes, colors and sizes too.

Here's some photos from inside the museum.




Pablo Picasso


I thought this one was interesting.

After the museum, I was walking back to the train station and passed Laduree, a pastry place (that looked very very expensive) and it looked like they were filming a commercial or some sort of promotion, so I gawked (I'll admit to it).  Across the street was Chanel, Gucci, Prada, Rolex and a whole slew of other stores that made the whole neighborhood quite extravagant.
  


 I then ventured to Notre Dame.  The inside was really cool with all the stained glass.




This is looking back on the entrance - up to the organ pipes.


Notre Dame from a far.

There's a bridge near Notre Dame (the one I was standing on to take the above picture) that is covered in locks.  People who are in love put one on the bridge as a symbol of their love and there are also streamers that I believe contain messages people want to leave.  I thought this one was cute for their anniversary.  As you can see, some people go all out and get them engraved!



As a final note for the day, my mom always tells me, "You're never alone when you have a gnome!"  This gnome she made for me out of some scrap yarn.  He has now been to many states in the US including Virginia, Wisconsin, Arizona, and Texas, as well as the Netherlands and now Paris and soon to be South Africa!  Maybe he can become a new sponsor for travelocity...