Thursday morning saw the boys off before daybreak to Gare du Nord and on the train to Saint Quentin station in the north. There they were met by their tour guide Olivier and taken to Pozières to trudge through the battlefield of the Somme.
Anne and I ventured out at a more leisurely pace. Off to the Louvre we went, fully intending to do some sketching of our own. However. the Louvre was buzzing with crowds, not as much as five years ago but enough to make it difficult to find a nook to sit and copy the masters. We wandered through the various rooms housing the Egyptian collection. This took the better part of two hours. Although very fascinating, we were starting to feel malnourished and went in search of the café. The Egyptians hadn't finished with us though. We descended endless steps, following the exit signs but each "sortie' led to another room housing even more gargantuan exhibits than the one before. Finally, when sphinx and sarcophagus seemed to close in, we emerged, suitably overawed.
After a so-so salad with fries at the cafë, we headed for the Renaissance galleries. Even though we toured the Louvre five years before, none of the sheer magnitude and brilliance of the works was lost as we wandered about, absorbing as much as humanly possible.
A quick visit to the gift shop, then back on the Metro to the apartment to cook dinner for our menfolk returning from the trenches.
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