by Sandra Crittenden

After our extravagant lunch, we had planned to have something fairly low key for dinner but it seems the travel gods wanted to smile upon us.  We had strolled over to the Eiffel Tower tourist-style to take some pictures at night and happened upon Les Ombres along the way. Far more modern and pricey-looking than our original street cafe plan,  armed with a credit card and  not knowing anything at all about the restaurant,  we took a chance and went in. I believe we were lucky to get in without a reservation and our good fortune did not end there.  Les Ombres is located in the  Musée du Quai Branly and  has an amazing view of the Eiffel Tower. It has an understated elegance in the dining room where the design is all about the panoramic view of the City of Light. We were seated with a prime view of our surroundings and were quickly served two glasses of Champagne and a fabulously fresh lobster salad.  The restaurant had a busy vibe and the s...

It would be easy to spend days walking through the Louvre slowly perusing the exhibits.  It is over 600,000 square feet in size and has more than 380,000 objects on display. During our short trip to Paris, we only allotted one morning to take in the offered culture. We arrived promptly for the 9:00 opening to allow ourselves approximately 3.5 hours to see some sites before our lunch reservation. My daughter's main goal was to see Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, one of the most heavily sought objects in the museum. We immediately got directions upon entering and headed that way. There was a tremendous crowd to take in the famed piece of art, it took longer than we expected but we did see it. Once that primary goal was accomplished, we were able to meander through the various exhibits and thoroughly enjoy our morning there. In addition to taking in the Renaissance paintings, we really enjoyed the large collection of ancient Egyptian, Roman and Greek artifacts. An obvious s...