Louvre

May 30

We took a bus from Amsterdam to Paris for a 36 hour visit before the crew got into town. Originally we had just planned on meeting Ken, Janine, and Sarah on the 31st in Brussels, but then we found out that Ben Folds was having a concert in Paris on the 30th, so we adjusted our plans to make that happen. It also gave us a chance to visit the Louvre which we hadn’t managed in our first two visits to the city of lights.

Also we got to see Square Louise Michel which was pretty cool thing to happen upon:

So for those of you that haven’t visited, the Louvre is crowded and hot, but I will say that the art, the architecture and even the Mona Lisa is really cool.

We had already had our fill of Greco-Roman art from our time at the Vatican, so we headed towards the Egyptian exhibit.

Bird boy mummies:

The below was my favorite out of the stone carvings.

Really big feet:

Am I the only one that is thinking of this:

https://youtu.be/8yiqGtZXCmQ

Then we wandered through the French painting section, but the ceilings were more fantastic than most of the paintings:

And we got to see the Consecration of the Emperor Napoleon and the Coronation of the Empress Josephine in Norte-Dame Cathedral on 2 December 1804 by Jacques Louis David which is not only incredible and massive, but also wins the award for the longest title of a painting ever.

I’m somewhat sure you’d call the below an icon. I wanted to go straight “Russian icon” but I have no facts to back this up. I actually just spent ten minutes googling all combinations of icon, Russian icon, louvre, Mary, Jesus, and Evangelists to get more information on this piece of work and found absolutely nothing in such a ridiculous fashion that if I didn’t have the picture I would assume it didn’t really exist in the first place. So with no information, here’s a piece of art that I liked and wanted to share with you:

The last supper… but in Italy during the renaissance?

And a couple pieces of art that I actually know the names of:

Winged Victory of Samothrace – one of the most celebrated sculptures in the world per Wikipedia, created around the 2nd century BC. The statue is 8 feet high and was created to honor the goddess, Nike, along with a sea battle (you can kind of see that she’s standing on a the bow of a ship).

Apparently before she lost her arms, which have never been recovered, Nike’s right arm is believed to have been raised to her mouth to deliver the shout of victory. Now this is a direct quote from Wikipedia, where you know you are getting the best possible information: “The work is notable for its convincing rendering of a pose where violent motion and sudden stillness meet, for its graceful balance and for the rendering of the figure’s draped garments, compellingly depicted as if rippling in a strong sea breeze”. Perhaps a bit of a run on, but I liked that description.

And then the big event! We saw the Mona Lisa!

Ok, ok. We fought through crowds who were throwing bows and shoving cameras and selfie sticks everywhere and saw the real one too:

After much pushing and struggling to maintain patience we got a bit closer for some one on one time (at least that’s what the pictures look like).

First – what do we think this security guard is doing behind me? Second – we both look quite disheveled. That is how hard it is to visit the Louvre. Between the hot rooms, the crowds and the overwhelming size of the place, it is physically taxing, but also a really great experience. We might be back on a future visit to Paris, but this might be the only time we need to see this lady. When I need my Mona Lisa fix, I’ll just listen to this instead:

https://youtu.be/7ATmg_k4UwM

Now off to the next part of our day!