DA VINCI CODE TOUR
Just outside of the Ritz Paris at Place Vend�me (closest M�tro station: Tuileries, line 1) we met Connie Kubicek, our American-living-in-Paris tour guide. She works for Classic Walks, which offers a daily Da Vinci Code Walk at 10 a.m. The 2-hour tour takes visitors through the pages of Dan Brown's novel, and begins with a quiz (refresher course) about the book. We then walked to the Louvre, via the Jardin des Tuileries gardens. It was still too cold out for flowers. We spent only 10 minutes in the Louvre (don't worry � we'll go there shortly on another tour). That was just enough time to get warm, and see the inverted pyramid that was believed to house the Holy Grail. Note: The only thing below the inverted pyramid is a parking lot -- I checked!

THE BRONZE MEDALLALIONS
We went back out in the cold, rain and hail -- dress warm, and bring an umbrella! Before crossing the Seine River on the Pont des Arts, we stopped to see one of the "Bronze Medallions" (the Rose Line). In the book the Rose Line (Paris meridian) is just a conversation piece between characters. But there are actually 135 of these "Arago" signs in Paris. Before Greenwich was established, they were used to determine geographical coordinates. Arago is named after 19th- century scientist and politician Fran�ois Arago. These baseball-sized medallions are set in the ground, and made from the bronze of a statue that once represented Fran�ois Arago. For more information and medallion locations, check out www.amb-pays-bas.fr. For more click HERE.