The Louvre and More

12Jul08

I know what you’re thinking, and the answer is “No, Natalie & I did not dress as Charles V and Jeanne de Bourbon and pose at The Louvre last night”. But I don’t blame you for confusing King Charles’ rugged masculinity with mine. What we did do, however, is manage to cover 2 of the 4 floors at The Louvre in just under four hours. Luckily for us, Friday nights are free for visitors under 26, so we will undoubtedly return to visit the final two floors.

What you first notice about The Louvre is its size: insanely large. As noted above, we were only able to see about half of the museum in just under four hours. I can’t imagine how people would attempt to visit the entire collection in just one day. For ourselves, we stuck just to the sculptures, so unfortunately you will have to wait until later in the month for pictures of us with Mona.

In two words, the sculptures are utterly incredible. Check out the photos for evidence of this fact. The sculptures are arranged first by country/region, and subsequently by year. Obviously, the French sculptures comprise the majority of the collection, occupying over forty different rooms. Northern European work, for instance, requires a mere six. One cannot, however, use this fact as a basis for significance, as I was generally more impressed with the non-French pieces – one can only see so many muscular men before they start looking the same. Besides, I could just look in the mirror…

Now that you’ve finished laughing, I will continue with our visit to The Louvre. We primarily followed tours provided by the audio guide, which turned out to be extremely helpful as the descriptions on the pieces themselves were offered only in French (not surprising). Thus, we were able to learn details about the most significant pieces, which we otherwise would not have known. The Venus de Milo, for instance, is in pretty rough shape and is actually not a completed work – it seems the anonymous sculptor abandoned the project midway through. She did, however, have arms at one point.

Thanks to the free Friday nights, it felt great to actually move through the museum at our own pace and take our time admiring work. Last Sunday for instance, when my parents were in town, it was free admission for everybody, so the museum was completely chaotic. At that time, we entered the museum with the strict plan of maneuvering our way to the Mona Lisa and then maneuvering our way out. Needless to say the under-26 Friday nights is a completely different atmosphere, and we plan on returning to cover the remaining two floors – that is, until Natalie ruins the fun and turns 26 at the end of the month…

Click here to see our photos from Visit 1 to The Louvre. We have also added many more individual albums, such as our trips to Montmartre, Sainte Chapelle, The Conciergerie, Jardin du Luxembourg, and miscellaneous photos added to Paris on Foot.

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