This was the other best day in Paris.
I had expected it to be similar to the Met, but boy was I wrong!
The Louvre used to be a palace, and all of Paris was at the center of it. The king built a wall around the palace to keep Paris safe. You could see parts of the wall in one of the entrances of the Louvre. The Louvre is near Ile de la Cite, and both are located at the center of Paris today. It's interesting to see how the city has expanded outwards from the center.
Our tour guide said it takes about 3 months to see everything in the Louvre! Um, WHAT. Come again?
It's one of the largest museums in the world, and it has about 10 million visitors each year. Seriously, even during off season the museum is choked with people. I couldn't get anywhere without bumping into someone or someone elbowing me (ahem, Asian tourists).
So even though it's a museum with tons of artworks, the building itself is a piece of art. So much to look at! I didn't know what to concentrate on, the sculpture in front of me or the paintings on the ceiling? It was history inside of history.
Our tour was supposed to start at 9:45am, but it was postponed until 10:30am because the Louvre was deciding whether to go on strike or not. Luckily, they decided not to and opened!
During our wait, we went to a cafe for more breakfast. In the morning, we just had a cup of coffee from Starbucks and a croissant and macaroons from McDonald's in the connecting mall called the Carousel. At the cafe, I got a slice of pizza and Mike finally had his quiche. The quiche was really good, way better than my slice of pizza!
The tour started with the Venus de Milo. Our guide, Catherine, said the statue of Venus was found in Milo, Sicily, hence "Venus de Milo."
Catherine explained who Venus was, what she is said to be like, and noted those details on the statue. For example, Venus is supposed to wear bangles on her upper arm, and there are two holes on the statue's upper arm where the bangles would be. Greeks developed the idea of "ideal beauty," and Venus is it - perfect profile where the nose continues from the forehead, and perfectly symmetrical face. Venus is also expressionless; if she smiled or frowned, she would have wrinkles, thereby ruining her face.
She also talked about the clothing of the sculptures. She said that as time went on, the clothing on female sculpture gradually became thinner and thinner until it was off.
Winged Victory was an example of when clothing on female sculpture began thinning out. The clothing on Winged Victory appeared to be wet, and you could see her contours of her body and muscles. Winged Victory was supposed to be on a cliff, celebrating a victory, and women were always a symbol of victory. Our tour guide explained that Nike's logo (a wing) and name (Latin for victory :) was purposeful!
I thought this sculpture was amazing because it looks so light, as if she's about to take flight. But she weighs a few tons!
An interesting tidbit: the statue's right wing is a replica of its left wing - the right wing was never found. But one of her hands was found, though with a few fingers missing, and it's in a boxed display nearby.
Described some paintings but I don't remember what they were or the details.
And finally, the Mona Lisa. It was really hard to get a snapshot of it because (1) she was a few feet behind line dividers (2) she was behind a thick bullet proof glass (3) she was by herself in the center of the wall and (4) there were tons of people. So I couldn't really tell if her eyes really follow you.
Catherine said she's so famous because of her smile. Is it a happy smile? Sad? Condescending? There are also no harsh lines, only subtle lights and darks to create the illusion of depth. It took da Vinci 3 years to finish this painting!
We looked at a painting across from the Mona Lisa called The Wedding at Cana. Our tour guide gave us an amazing description and history of this painting. On the surface, it looks like the last supper, but it is actually a wedding. There are also symbols - at the center of the painting is the story of Jesus, from his sacrifice as shown by the butchering of a lamb to the red wine being poured from a pitcher.
It's a huge piece and the more you look at it, the more you see. On the right side of the painting, there are people throwing rose petals, there's a tiny dog on the table, and a cat on the ground. The bride and groom on the left side of the painting so not look happy - why is that?
There are so many other things in this painting that I don't remember being said, but I was so fascinated by it.
The only painting I remember of Napolean is that of his coronation. It's also a huge piece and so much detail! We saw a replica at the Palace of Versailles, and in that painting, one of Napoleon's sisters is wearing a pink dress instead of a white one. The reason for that, people speculate, is because the artist was in love with that sister, and he made her look different and special.
In the painting, Napoleon's mother is present (at the center), but in real life, she wasn't there to see her son's coronation because she was angry. So the artist was trying to create an illusion of family unity when there wasn't. The tour guide said that Napoleon used art to communicate, usually of his power, and this is an example him doing just that.
Then Catherine showed us Michelangelo's only artwork in France - 2 unfinished marble sculptures called Slaves. It was commissioned by someone for a tomb, but the plans changed and Michelangelo gave the two sculptures to a friend, who brought it to France. It's amazing because his works are rarely seen outside of Italy!
Michelangelo studied human anatomy extensively, going as far as dissecting people to understand how the body worked. You can see his attention to the shape of the muscles and joints in the Slaves. They are very detailed and precise. I'm pretty sure Mike thought it was disgusting, but I thought it was an awesome piece of work.
Another interesting tidbit is that Michelangelo saw a piece of marble as having someone trapped inside it, and he carves to free them. His quote, "I saw an angel inside the marble, and I carved to set him free." Beautiful quote, huh?
Since Slaves is unfinished, you could see how he worked i.e. where he made markings on the marble and the tools he used. Pretty cool!
Finally, before the end of the tour, we went to Napoleon III's apartments! BEAUTIFUL! I think the interior design is even more beautiful than the Palace of Versailles!
My favorite room and shot of the trip
Then we wandered off on our own. It was crazy. I had no idea where to go because IT'S. SO. HUGE. I asked Catherine for recommendations, and she suggested the Egyptian and Mesopotamian collections. We're like okay, we'll do that. So we walked through decorative arts and saw parts of Egyptian before we called it quits. We were way too tired.
We left and ate at the mall, the Carousel. There was a food court, and I got a seafood paella, orange juice, and flan. Mike got a burger, nuggets, and cured meat. Everything was so yum!
Suh gud.
On our way out, we passed by this atrium that was basically another gallery. I saw it from another floor earlier during the tour:
Ugh, explain this to me.
We sat outside the Louvre and just enjoyed the scene.
Then we took a refreshing nap inside the mall. and these comfy beach chairs...
Later, we grabbed a snack at another cafe that has really pretty, fancy looking crepes. We ordered a crepe with apples, nuts, caramel and ice cream. Apple cider was also the cafe's specialty, so we also ordered that too. Both were really really good! The cider was fizzy and tasted like candied beer.
The crepe! They made it look pretty too !
Apple cider. Totally looked like beer. Or piss.
We chatted and hung around the Louvre for the view. We positioned ourselves so that we could see the Louvre on our left and the Eiffel Tower on our right.
Then we moved to the river and saw the Eiffel Tower's sparkling lights again.
We also walked across a bridge to view the Notre Dame from afar.
It was almost 9pm and we were getting hungry. We went to a pho place near our hostel, haha.
The pho was pretty good. This was the first time Mike did not put anything extra in the soup, like hot sauce and basil. We had 1 bowl of pho, spring rolls (made with rice paper, so delicious!), Vietnamese quiche, and beef cubes. I tried Vietnamese quiche for the first time, and I didn't really like. The beef cubes were incredibly tender, but the seasoning was totally Chinese!
Suh gud.
Then we retired for the night. Well, slept for about 2 hours and went to the airport to catch our 7:40am flight!
In all, like the Palace of Versailles, the Louvre was mind blowing!!! I've been wanting to go to the Louvre since high school, and it only took 8 years for me to get there!