Monday, July 23, 2012

Day 4 of Paris

I started the day exhausted. Maybe it was all the stairs the last few days. Maybe it was the time zone difference that's causing me to get less sleep. Or maybe, just maybe, I'm just tired. So I stayed in till 9:30 a.m. this morning. I only had the Louvre planned, and I have no delusions of seeing the entire thing.
Luckily (or not), I had to take the RER C to get to my destination and I knew that I had to take the bus for part of my trip. Unfortunately, I take the RER B train first to make the connection to C. And this morning, the RER B had some issues. I headed to Information to ask for directions to the St. Michel station so I could take the 4 to make the connection. The ladies there were very nice and helpful.
I saw a glimpse of the size of the Louvre the evening before on the boat so I knew it was impossible to see the entire thing.



Luckily, I bought a Museum Pass, so I avoided the insanely long line for tickets and went inside very quickly. Now the Louvre has an outer border, a big space, another square border with the artifacts surrounding an area that includes the glass pyramid among some fountains. Other wings have been added to this square frame to make the museum so damn ginormous.



And there was an intricate metal mesh as soon as you enter the pyramid.



I headed to the Sully wind because it was the only one that sounded familiar (my museum pass mentions it when it says to check out the crypt under said wing). In I went:



And got a brief history about the Louvre - how it was built in stages, what prompted the expansion, bits and pieces of the original Louvre which was actually the first middle square. There were some paintings that were first included in the Louvre. Then I went to the crypt and saw a sphinx. You will not believe the crowd in the museum at this time.



Then I went up to the greek and roman statues



Including the famous Venus de Milo. I could not enjoy any of this properly because there were too many damn people.



And the italian art. I could not get over how gorgeous the ceilings were.





Then it was to hussle in the huge-ass crowd to get a glimpse of the Mona Lisa



More ceilings



Other cultures



Then I went to the Richelieu wing which houses modern age art, decor... that kind of thing. The first few things I saw were gothic pieces



I thought La mort Saint Innocence was cool:



Then I went on to Napoleon's living space. The first thing I thought when I saw his throne was how little it was, then I remembered that he was a little man.



The crown jewels



His bedroom and dining room



And the sitting room:



I also saw some renaissance artwork:



Then it was the trek back to the hotel. I walked along Saint Michel to do a bit of shopping but I kept multiplying everything by 10 for currency exchange so I got dinner.

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