Ah yes, the Louvre, the largest museum in the world at 652,300 square feet with over 35,000 pieces of art on display. It can be is quite intimidating. There's just no way to see "everything" in one visit and if you even tried this, would you even remember what you saw? We had been to the Louvre twice over the years and really wanted to visit yet again. We always get our tickets online, which makes things much easier and do either an early or late visit. On this visit, I was purchasing our tickets and noticed that there was a "Visitor's Trail" of the Louvre's Masterpieces on the website. Why hadn't I noticed that before?
I bookmarked the page in my phone. And since we had pocket wifi, I just followed the trail.
It all started with which entrance to take with turn by turn instructions and details of the masterpiece.
As well as some other historical tidbits. For instance the Salle des Cariatides which was both used as a ballroom and court of justice. There's also this tidbit on the website:
"And it was here, in 1572, that Marguerite de Valois, the famous ‘Queen Margot’, married Henri de Navarre, the future King Henri IV. Only a few days later, on 24 August, Protestant nobles who had attended the wedding were assassinated in the Louvre in the notorious Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre."
Of course, there are some works need no introduction…..
That's Venus and the Three Graces Presenting Gifts to a Young Woman by Boticelli below.
And of course, the Grand Gallerie.
I was a bit concerned about our next stop expecting a long line…..
But the line for "you know who"……wasn't very long at all. I guess one of the benefits of getting in right when things open.
Here's Michelangelo's the Rebellious Slave and the Dying Slave.
Doing this walk made me take a closer look at the pieces. For instance, I always wondered why this was called Nymph with a Scorpion.
I'd just take a look at the sculpture from the angle above.
This time, I took a walk around the work and it became very clear…..
After finishing off the walk, we headed on over to look at the Egyptian Collection.
There's a trail for that as well. I think we'll do that next time!
We had enjoyed the Louvre a lot more this time around and I think perhaps we may even do a private tour one of these days.
We strolled around the area near to the Bourse and window shopped along Galerie Vero Dodat one of the 21 covered passages in Paris, some of which I've posted on before.
Then we had to figure out what we wanted for lunch.
This was in December of last year and it was pretty chilly. We thought ramen would fit the bill and decided on a familiar spot that was on the way back to the apartment; Hakata Choten.
We got our usual, the Tonkotsu with Black Garlic and a Pork and Rice bowl.
The broth was a bit richer than what we had on our previous visit here which was nice. The tamago a bit over-cooked but nicely flavored. For some reason, I like the savory-sweet flavor that the black garlic oil adds to this bowl. The noodles were perfectly cooked on this visit as well.
The pork bowl was fine, there was quite a bit of rice in this. The rice was decently cooked, but there wasn't enough of a sauce nor pork to really balance out things.
Funny thing, on one of our previous visits to the Louvre we ended up at Hakata Choten as well, though it was the Opera location.
This was enough to warm us up for the rest of the walk back to our accommodations.
Hakata Choten Les Halles
16 Rue de la Grande Truanderie
75001 Paris, France
Where it was time for a nap!
Thanks for stopping by!
The plate was quite heavy on the proteins. Personally, I liked having only one scoop rice as I will often tell the folks at turo-turo places to give me "half rice" these days. 
I've yet to find decent Huli Huli Chicken outside of Hawaii and versions I've had 
The mac salad, though a bit over-mayo'd was nicely seasoned this time around. I could make out hints of vinegar which really elevated it. 
I liked the kalua pork, it was moist and tender, not overly salty, with a decent smokiness to it. In fact, the Missus tried the leftovers and said it 
Man, these were super stuffed, full of porky goodness, hint of sweet- savory tones, and wrapped with rice paper. It was slightly more chewy than I prefer, but man, the overall package was much better than anything here is San Diego. This also heated up well in the air fryer!
Again the greens and frites were quite good. That Andouillette was quite, well, rotund, literally bursting at the seams. This was quite funky, shades of 
This time the crepe was delivered with a fork and knife. I wasn't sure I'd enjoy chicken in a crepe, but it wasn't bad at all. Actually, the bite of tangy-sour heat from the sauces/salsa really made it enjoyable to my palate. The sweetness was tempered and the cheese really helped to balance out the flavors. I do think this could have used a bit more salt. And heck, even more spicy too!
I'm glad I tried Hola Paris. While it's not something I crave, Benjamin and Gabby are so nice and friendly. I really enjoyed chatting with Benjamin about Paris.
