I have started a new blog, Secrets of a Paris Tour Guide, and have also started the difficult, for me, process of videos, along with daily photos. I’m finding it fun to video around Paris and hope to help others either enjoy Paris vicariously or plan for future trips.

Did you notice that I have a book for sale over there on the right? I wrote it a few years ago putting together what I found people wanted to know about visiting Paris. Along with where to stay, some suggestions on where to eat, there are some walks that I wrote based on walks that I do with clients who do my tours. There are some photos too. I hope, if you are coming to Paris, that you will order it. Right now it’s just on Kindle at Amazon but I hope to have it in the print on demand format before long. I’m excited to dip my toe into the world of books. I have more coming too. If nothing else, I write a lot.

There are parts of the Louvre Museum that I seldom get to. When people want to have a tour of the Louvre they almost always request the “Big Three”-Mona Lisa, Winged Victory and Venus de Milo. There’s a reason of course. There’s hardly anyone who hasn’t either heard of them or seen a photo or two in a book somewhere. They are even seen in movies: Remember Audrey Hepburn in the movie, Funny Face? She is running down the stairs in front of the Winged Victory saying, “Take the picture, take the picture!” If you haven’t seen it, it’s a good way to look at Paris in 1957. There are differences.
I do get clients, however, who want to see something not as popular. Some want to see the Dutch painters and just recently I had a request for the Egyptian wing. It has been so long since I have walked through there that I went the other day to refresh my memory.

This sculpture greets you as you enter one of the many rooms devoted to Egyptian art.

Isn’t this dramatic? I went to Egypt many years ago and saw temples with objects like this.

Colorful sarcaphagus.

Isn’t this sweet? The Egyptians had cats as pets all of those thousands of years ago.

Finally, what fascinates most people most: the mummy. I think that many were wrapped in a circular fashion but look at the mitered corners on the face here. They also put all of the vital organs inside separate containers. They went to such great lengths to preserve the body because they thought you took it with you into the after life. That’s why there were so many objects as well as food in the tombs as well.