Highlights of the Louvre Museum including the famous Mona Lisa, the Napoleon III State apartments and the various courtyards within and outside the museum. After nearly a whole day, I leave the museum to walk around the surrounding areas including the Arch de Triomphe Carrousel, Jardin du Tuileries and Place de la Concorde. Finally, the day finishes with a relaxing stroll around Palais Royal and the streets of the Tuileries Quarter. Photos using my polarising filter are indicated in the photo log.

Since the Louvre is a "must-see" attraction in Paris, I had to make sure that I got there pretty early. By 8:45 am, I was already leaving the Palais Royal metro station and entering through the Passage Richelieu. The passage leads on past the group entrance to the Court Napoleon and the Pyramid entrance. After passing through the security checks, I was on my way to buy my tickets to the Louvre. Already, the reception area below the pyramid had visitors, but fortunately, the queues were not very long and very soon, I was on my way to explore the Louvre. However, there was no clear starting point, since the museum is split into three wings - Richelieu, Denon and Sully. I decided to pick Denon and work my way up this part of the wing.

To my surprise, the descriptions on the placards were all in french, so I decided to buy a guide book and went back in to the Egyptian antiquities, Denon wing. From here, I continued on to the Greek, Egyptian and Roman Antiquities on the Ground floor, passing the Winged Victory at the staircase before proceeding up another set of stairs to the French and Italian Galleries to meet the famous "Mona Lisa". Despite the early time of day, there were lots of visitors crowding around the "Winged Victory" and "Mona Lisa". In addition, the "Mona Lisa" was placed behind a glass cabinet, supposedly to reflect camera flashes. Finally, I proceeded through the rest of the Italian Paintings and towards the Renaissance, Crown diamonds and the Napoleon III Apartments in the Richelieu Wing.

Photography and video cameras were not allowed in the rooms of the Crown Jewels. Highlights of the Crown Jewels include the Coronation Crown of Louis XV, the Regent diamond, the large Côte de Bretagne ruby and the golden crown of Empress Eugenie. In the end, the crowns and jewels are nowhere near as elaborate or as many as those found in the Tower of London.

Arriving at the Napoleon III state apartments, I skipped quickly through the smaller, less interesting rooms at the beginning until I arrived at Grand Salon. Huge beyond belief, the walls and doors of this large hall is painstakingly decorated and has a magnificently painted ceiling. Moving on from the Grand Salon is the dining room. A long dining table stretches along the ends of the room while a painting depicting the sky is shown, thus creating the impression of the room being outside the palace.

After the apartments, I quickly toured the numerous dutch and french painting galleries up on the next floor and observed a number of people taking copies of some famous paintings including the Bathers and Alexander and Porus,before making my way back down to the Medieval Moat in the Louvre. I had to proceed down via elevator to the Sully Wing to speed things up a bit. The medieval moat is surprisingly small compared to the rest of the Louvre, but nonetheless shows the historic diversity of the Louvre. Finally I finished the day at the Louvre by touring the areas I had missed, of those worth mentioning include the Puget and Marly sculptures in the Court Puget and Marly and the Crypt of the Sphinx above the Medieval moat.

Later in the afternoon, I left the Louvre via the reception area (which is now flooded with visitors) with knowing that I had covered most of the museum (except for the tomb of Phillipe Pot which was closed). Relieved, I ventured into the outside world and had another look around the Court Napoleon and Caree and the Arch de Triomphe Carrousel which stands in the Place du Carrousel opposite the Louvre entrance. Although not very large, the arch is well decorated with a gilded statue of Victory that celebrate the restoration of the Bourbons. After walking through the arch, I proceeded onward to the park of Jardin des Tuilieries.

Around the park, Parisians were making the most of the bright sunlight, either by lounging on the park benches or deck chairs provided by the park or simply just lying on the grass. Inside the park are two large ponds, one near the Place de la Concorde and the other where I was standing near Place du Carrousel, where children launched wooden yachts that were provided by the park. To give a sense of scale for the park, it took more than 10 minutes to traverse from my current position near Carrousel to the Place de la Concorde.

I was tempted to let myself go and take a big lounge at the park with the Parisians, but I thought it would be better to finish off the rest of my tour around the Tuileries. So I walked to the Place de la Concorde where the huge 3200 year-old Luxor obelisk rose towards the sky. On both sides of the obelisk were two fountains spewing forth its cool water. Before the erecting of the obelisk, the area was once notorious for executions of Louis XVI and Marie- Antoinette. After taking photos of the square, I took the short way back to the Palais Royal via the metro station at Concorde.

I entered the Palais Royal via the entrance beside the street Rue de Valois. The courtyard inside the Palais Royal is home to Daniel Buren's striped stone columns, which start flat on the western side, but gradually increase in height towards the east. Hard to believe this clean square was once the scene of gambling and debauchery. Beyond the stone columns and through the colonnade is a fountain of spheres and one large disfigured sphere which appears to represents the dark side of the world we live in. Beyond these weird sculptures is the park of Jardin du Palais Royal.

On both sides of the Jardin du Palais Royal are more weird sculptures, some too difficult for me to interpret (the wonders of modern art!). In the middle of the park are garden beds lined with tulips and a central fountain where people come to relax and read in the chairs provided by the park. Although it was late in the evening, it was still fairly bright, so people were still keen to stay out and soak up the last rays of the sun. For me, however, it was time to head back for dinner.

And so ends another full day of history, art and discovery in Paris, this time in the Tuileries Quarter, namely the Place de la Concorde and the Louvre. From the early morning, I started the Louvre, thinking it would just be another museum, but ended up exploring a medieval moat and royal state apartments. In addition, taking strolls in the parks of the Tuileries not realising that there was once a darker history in the area around the quarter and how the area has now transformed itself into something that is lively and peaceful.