After stomaching our delicious croissants, we hopped on the metro to the Louvre stop, walked into the grand courtyard through the Richelieu wing, and beheld the large glass pyramid straddled by its small companions. Our swanky Museum Passes required us to enter under the pyramid in order to skip the queues, so we descended right into the middle of the madness.
According to several travel guides and websites, the Louvre is just too large to be visited in its entirety, so we were recommended to pick the main works we wished to see and go from there. I thus crafted a short list of “must see” works for us: Venus de Milo, Winged Nike of Samothrace, the Mona Lisa, Canova’s Psyche and Cupid, Michelangelo’s slave sculptures, Hammurabi’s Code, and a Sphinx. I had several paintings on a vague secondary list in my head, but wouldn’t have been heartbroken if we missed them.
Above: Winged Nike of Samothrace
We spent five and a half hours at the Louvre.
Let me repeat that for those skimming every other sentence: We spent five and a half hours at the Louvre.
We saw amazing sculptures, paintings, jewelry and artifacts. It was a wonderful experience, and every bit as vast a museum as we’d been warned. We were also able to see everything we wished, and more. Here are some random thoughts about our experience:
1) The Venus de Milo is lovely but slightly overrated as a quality sculpture, should be called the “Aphrodite of Milos,” and belongs in Greece.
Above: She could also be called the "Double-Amputee of Milos"
2) The Mona Lisa is also (and much more) overrated, is a crowded exhibit, and could easily be missed in a portrait gallery if no one knew it was a Da Vinci.
Above: Annie's smile beats hell out of Mona's.
2a.) We didn’t see Tom Hanks or an albino anywhere.
3) Painters really love gratuitous and unexplainable topless women. I'm no Art scholar, but the best explanation I could make up is that the bared breasts symbolized innocence or vulnerability(???)
Above: Innocence, or "wardrobe malfunction"?
4) Canova is an amazing sculptor: Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss was perhaps the greatest sculpture we saw in the Louvre.
This is an amazing sculpture.
5) Mummies and sarcophagi are just plain cool.
5a.) We didn’t see Brendan Fraser or any living dead.
After departing the main galleries of the museum, we sought out the inverted pyramid, made (more) famous by the end of “The Da Vinci Code.” Pretty cool!
Tired and starved, we wanted to get out of the Louvre for a place to eat in the fresh air. However, it was pouring outside, so we were stuck eating pizza inside the underground mall known as the Carrousel de Louvre.
Once the rain abated, we took the metro home and decided to climb the Arc de Triomphe while the skies were clear. Over 160 feet high, this triumphal arch honors those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
In the base beneath the Arc is Paris’ Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, with an eternal flame that was actually Jackie Kennedy’s inspiration for President Kennedy’s grave.
Above: A service at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
The view from the top was spectacular. We had a 360-degree view of Paris, only needing to walk ten yards at a time to change our perspective. Being in the center of “l’étoile” had perks!
We could see all the way up the Champs-Élysées, and I tried to imagine it lined with thousands of fans two days from now for the Tour de France. Both of us were very excited to witness such a rare sight for hillbilly Americans!
ABOVE: The Champs-Élysées.
After descending from the Arc, we walked home, then I went out for some Asian noodles with beef & pork for dinner. Don’t chastise us, please: we were tired, it was a convenient (and good) meal, and Annie started watching Memoirs of a Geisha on the TV, so we were eating accordingly. Ni-hao from Paris!
Paris July 22 Album:
 |
| Paris: July 22, 2011 |
Location:Paris, France
No comments:
Post a Comment