Another Day In Paris (Part 3)

We got up early today and had a nice breakfast.  In other words, I am having my croissant and hot chocolate fix on a daily basis.  There is no better way to start the day in my opinion!
We left quite early though as we'd decided to visit the Louvre and past experience has shown us that you need to get in the queue early on, so we were there by 8.20am and the museum doesn't even open until 9am, but to be fair, there were already people in the queue. 
When the doors open, the queue moves pretty quickly, and the route to 'you-know-who' is very well sign-posted (okay, I mean La Gioconda, or La Joconde, if we're being french).  Most people made their way up there and I'm glad we did, as we had a fabulous view, which I think may have been difficult later on judgeing from the crowds.
Here's our gal:

I've always been told the painting is very small, but actually it's quite big (not compared to some of the others, granted, but not tiny).  I was quite awestruck, to be honest.  I can't believe I've actually stood in front of it, it's actually quite breathtaking.  I didn't realise how old it is either (1503).
The Louvre is vast and we walked round most of it.

I forgot the Venus de milo was in here too, so stumbling upon her was quite a thrill.

I've put this on just because I have a passion for Assyrian antiquities.  There is some awesome stuff like this in the British Museum, with stuff from Nineveh, that really brings the Bible to life and absolutely fascinates me.
Here's the other thing, that made the whole trip worthwhile:

This is Francois Rude's statue of Joan of Arc.  I don't know how to explain this, really.  I am a born again Christian, but totally not catholic, but I've had a 'thing' about Jeanne d'Arc for many, many years.  There's just something about her female heroism that really speaks to me.
Anyway, there she was, listening, armour by her side.  She will pop up again later actually, but I just wanted to put her in here, where she belongs.
So basically, I'm so glad we went to the Louvre.  We were actually in there for 4 hours and still didn't see everything.  I don't want to make this a very picture heavy post, but you get the idea.
We came out into the sunlight and then headed up to Abbesses station and up on the Funicular.  If you don't know what that is, have a look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montmartre_funicular 
We decided not to go to the Sacre Coeur as we went inside last time, so we just wandered around the market square and had lunch in a restaurant there.  We had a Plat du Jour for 14E 50, which was very good.  I had an amazing starter which was a vol au vent with some slightly melted roquefort cheese in it and the plate swimming in a cheese sauce, it was awesome.  I also had Boeuf bourguignon, which was fabulous, then a chocolate mousse.  The flavours in each course were very strong and fabulous.  I just want to go back and eat it all again!  You look at the choc mousses here and think, 'that's really small' but the flavour is so rich, you really don't need a massive portion.  I have never come across chocolate like that in England.  That is not to say it doesn't exist, but I've never come across it!  And if you have, please, for goodness sake, leave me a message and tell me where I can get some!!
This is quite a long post now, so I'll stop and pop back tomorrow.
Thanks for looking
Jane xx