The Louvre

My first week in Paris has been spent outside in the cold, wet and sometimes snowy climate. But even with the sub-40 (fahrenheit) temperatures, I didn't really feel compelled to stay indoors at all, let a lone a day.

To give you an idea of what's been going on since I arrived on Friday:

• Friday night bar crawl
• Saturday tour on the Seine River on the top deck of a tour boat
• Staying out Saturday until 6:30 a.m. the next morning
• Walking in the (snow-covered) Luxembourg Gardens
• All-day outdoor scavenger hunt (see previous post)

And that doesn't include the many miles I've walked over the past week while in the Metro stops. Yeah, they take you places, but who knew underground tunnels could be so tiring?

Surprisingly, I hadn't felt more tired than I was yesterday after my tour of the Louvre. While staying indoors all day, we walked and walked...and walked, and saw A LOT of art. More than I had ever seen before.

The Louvre is a stunning building. Upon first glance, you immediately notice the detail on every part of the structure, from the beautiful arched doorways to the sculptures and carvings from top to bottom. Its tan color fits in perfectly in the rest of the architecture in the 1st arrondissement. It sits right along the Seine River, and is an open, rectangular shaped building with an enormous courtyard in the middle. The Carousel de Louvre is an underground shopping area and also an entrance to the museum, which is marked by several modern looking glass pyramids.

To be frank, I don't really know much about art. But there is something about the Louvre that anyone, even a sports guy like me can appreciate. Before he built Versailles in the late 17th century, Louis XIV called the Louvre his home, and Napolean used a section of it — which will be shown later in this post — as his Paris apartment. Anybody can acknowledge the history and beauty of the Louvre.

The Louvre is split into three wings: Richelieu, Denon and Sully. According to Wikipedia (my professors would kill me), the Louvre has 35,000 paintings and 380,000 objects, which is obviously too many to view in one day. I decided to tackle the Denon wing first, which features Italian and French masterpieces such as Mona Lisa, a couple Michelangelo sculptures, and a wide array of French paintings.

Nearly every wall is covered, and rooms with sculptures are littered with them. Everywhere you turn, you hear someone say, "Oh that one's really famous." But to me, that's not the point. I thought the Mona Lisa was pretty unimpressive. Aside from the fact that its covered by a glass, it is the only painting in the building that you can't go right up against. I feel like it's more for novelty than anything else.

Or maybe it's the painting directly across from the Mona Lisa. I mean, it's enormous, and incredibly detailed:


After the Mona Lisa lies the "Grand Hall." It houses the French masterpieces in the Louvre including Eugene Délacroix's Liberty Leading the People and Théodore Géricault's The Raft of the Medusa. Both are amazing paintings, but Géricault's was by far my favorite. Apparently, he was chosen to paint the scene of a shipwreck that killed hundreds. He interviewed the survivors and he even went to the morgue to sketch the bodies that were recovered. Forgive me for the poor picture quality, it really doesn't do the painting justice.


After a short lunch at a hole in the wall sandwich shop near the Louvre (it was delicious), we went back in to see another wing, this time the Richelieu. Our tour included massive scultptures from ancient Mesopotamia. These were, in short, tremendous — both in size and elegance. The winged bulls with human heads were built for a ruler in about 700 BCE in order to protect his palace from evil spirits. Not only are they in perfect condition, but their placement in the Louvre is perfect. As you walk into a different room, you walk in between the two bulls that are inscribed with Akkadian script, which is impressive by itself.


Finally, we got a chance to tour the Napoleon apartments. This guy lived the life. We counted the amount of chairs in his dining room, which amounted to 36. His grand salon was velvety red with gold walls and massive chandeliers. I did notice that his bed was a bit small though. If I were a king, I would have a huge bed. Like a really, really big bed. Whatever, the chandeliers made up for it.



Obviously, I saw a lot more, and I took well over 100 photos, so there is a lot that's not shown here. I'll try putting up a slide show, hopefully that will cover more - no promises though. I'll do my best. I don't have much planned for this weekend, but I don't start class until Wednesday, so maybe I'll travel somewhere? Who knows. Until next time...