After the rousing success of our landmark sightseeing yesterday, today was museum day. We planned to first visit the most trafficked art museum in the world - the famous Parisian Louvre. Yep, that one - who knew I'd be going to the LOUVRE in 2012?! We got up about forty-five minutes later than we'd planned, but managed to squeeze in breakfast. Since I'm HHonors Gold, breakfast is complimentary, and this was probably the best spread I've seen; tons of pastries, the standards eggs, bacon, and sausage, and amazing French bread with several types of cheeses and cold cuts. So great I look forward to breakfast at the hotel tomorrow!
After taking care of our dietary needs, we were off. We took the train up to central Paris, and after some trouble with Dana's Paris Visite travel pass, we managed to make it to the museum. The sight of everything in Paris is overwhelming, as every building seems incredibly old and beautiful, despite being apartments or offices or what have you. The Louvre blended right in, though it was a bit larger than most, so it was reasonably easy to spot.
The Streets of Paris
Inside the Louvre
The Louvre's Iconic Pyramid
The museum cost us about €20 for the two of us, and it was well worth it. The Louvre is filled with some of the most famous paintings and sculptures in the world, and exploring it would literally take days. Dana and I managed to thoroughly explore the Italian and Spanish Renaissance section, the Greek/Roman Sculpture section, and much of the French section, leaving several sections completely untouched. The guide for the museum specifically says you have to prioritize, though - that the entire museum is impossible to see in one day.
First of all, some of the best pictures from the Italian and Spanish section. Of course, this section features the most famous painting in the entire museum, the universally-known Mona Lisa painted by Leonard DaVinci. The painting was very crowded, but we managed to elbow our way up near the front to gather some camera shots.
The largest hall in the Italian/Spanish Renaissance Section
Mona Lisa; yep
After the paintings, we felt like taking a look at some sculptures. We sauntered over to the nearby Greek and Roman-dominated sculptures section that featured another well-known piece - the Venus de Milo. The section featured hundreds if not thousands of sculptures, most featuring leaders or gods and goddesses of the two related pantheons. It was overwhelming and absolutely gorgeous, to say the very least.
Venus de Milo
Moia
The rest of our visit was strolling through various other sections and standing in awe of the magnitude of the collection. It was overwhelming! We grabbed some drinks from the museum cafe as an intermission, and then hit up the French sculpture section for a stroll. After that, we headed out in search of our next landmark!
Next up, it turned out, was the famous cathedral of Notre Dame. It's within pretty easy walking distance from the Louvre, but it still managed to sneak up on us a little. Rounding a corner treated us to the sight of the cathedral towering over the Seine:
Notre Dame
The cathedral was incredible and gigantic, and pictures were forbidden inside. Fortunately, tons of people were taking pictures anyway, so I managed to snap a couple of the huge stained glass windows inside. The cathedral was cavernous and contained a ton of different areas for prayer and reflection. We wanted to go to the top, but the line was a bit longer than we wanted to wait, so we made do with just the internal tour.
After Notre Dame, we walked in the direction of our final stop for the day, the Centre Pompidou. The Pompidou serves as one of Paris' modern art museums, and came highly recommended from Dana's friend Richie. The building, first of all, is more than imposing. It's huge and decorated with variously colored tubes which rise from the ground to the top of the building in, tracing seemingly random paths at times upward. As you enter the museum, you work your way back outside, where you take escalators upward through the tubes on the side of the building, as seen below.
The outside of the Centre Pompidou
The tubes that transport visitors skyward
Dana on the escalators
The museum was a welcome change of pace after a day filled with the Louvre. Modern art hits all the notes that antiquated art does not - confusion, eccentricity, playing with and mixing mediums. The first piece we were treated to was a Warhol, and there were a ton of interesting sculptures and paintings.
Warhol painting featuring Liz Taylor
Chair
One of several Picassos
After spending a couple hours at the museum, we were worn out and ready to head home to the hotel. Before the journey, though, we decided to grab a quick supper and ducked into a cafe. Our waiter was nice and spoke perfect English, so I asked him to recommend his favorite red wine. I ordered a dish which consisted of duck on toasted bread with cream cheese and nestled in a bed of greenery. Dana ordered a croque-monsieur, a selection of several cheeses layers on bread and then grilled. Both were excellent!
We managed to make it back to the hotel fairly early, and I managed to grab a fairly long nap while Dana worked on her paper due the next evening. When I woke up, she was nearly done, and we spent the rest of the evening mocking French television and uploading the multitude of pictures I had taken.
Tomorrow we do one last tour of the City of Lights by visiting Versailles and then heading back to London.
No comments:
Post a Comment