After having wonderful weather the fitrst part of the week, the last couple of days have been a little blah -- hazy with a little overcast and looking like it could start raining any minute -- tomorrow and Sunday rain is actually predicted -- they sing about April showers in Paris so guess I shouldn't be surprised -- part of the ambience.
Today was finally the "Louvre day" so got an early start knowing there would be crowds galore and there were. No problem finding the place this time -- actually took a different exit from the Metro and ended-up exiting right into the middle of the Louvre Hall. The "hall" is a large area directly under the iconic glass pyramid that's a combined staging area to enter the Louvre and a shopping galleria tempting touirists to spend their money. Considering this is France, the ticketing/entry process was quite efficient, moving visitors into the different galleries fairly quickly.
The Louvre is composed of a five story tall U-shaped structure -- an absolutely gorgeous building from mostly the late 1700's -- a structure has been there since the 1200's, added onto and reconfigured over time -- originally a fortress, then a royal palace, finally becoming a museum following the French Revolution. Each side of the "U" has a different name (for that wing of the building) -- the tour books say there are over 35,000 pieces of art in the Louvre and that it would take you nine months to see it all -- add in the crowds and it might take two years!
My plan for today was to see as much of the Denon wing as I could -- very ambitious as it turned out -- spent four hours seeing most of what was exhibited on one and a third floors -- by then my legs were back to screaming and burn-out had set-in.
Started with a section of wood and stone statutes/heads dating from the 1200's to the 1500's (all pretty much with a religious focus), then moved on to huge (we're talking a couple of hundred yards in length at least) galleries of Italian and French painters from the 1500's -1800's (was so proud, I actually recognized quite of few of the paintings and painter's names (da Vinci, Gioconda, Titian, Botticinni, Raphael, Bellini, Gericault, David, etc....). The paintings were, as promised, spectacular but seeing that much in such a relatively short time quickly led to burn-out of a sort -- it was like -- this painting is wonderful, this other painting is wonderful, this other painting is wonderful -- everything was "wonderful" and, as a result, after awhile, nothing really stood-out
Worked my way throught the crowd and saw the Mona Lisa -- really nice, but the thought kept running through my head "Why is everyone so excited about this one as opposed to the other four hundred paintings in the collection that, to me, are just as impressive?" Maybe it was the burn-out talking?
What really did impress me were some of the statues -- the Winged Victory of Samothrace (she's pretty beaten-up, not much is left, but what is, is stunning, very powerful), the Venus de Milo (exquisite, beautiful, moving) and one of the larger statues of Aphrodite -- they all stood out even with hundreds of other statues in the gallery. (I didn't realize there are two distinct "schools" of Aphrodite depending upon how she's dressed, her facial featues and probably other things -- it's interesting to me that after seeing seventy to eighty different statues of Aphrodite, one actually stood out, unlike the paintings).
My experience today was like seeing the tip of the iceberg -- I hope to go back again and see more as well as revisiting some of today's special pieces.
One note about the Louvre -- it can be a dangerous place. There are numerous tour groups of twenty to twenty-five peope at the museum following a tour guide -- they will literally mow you down and keep on going to keep up -- can't describe how many times a group knocked other visitors to the side, pushed past them and kept on going -- reminded me of a time when I was pelted by a swarm of june bugs whose path I happened to cross -- not a pleasant experience!
That was the morning and mid-day -- my late afternoon excitement is waiting to see how a load of laundry turns out -- machines here are totally different than in the States and good luck guessing what the controlls do -- I resorted to just pushing buttons until it started making noise -- almost afraid to go see what's happening. Then there's the issue of drying the clean clothes as dryers are not a big thing here -- guess you just spread/hang things throughout the apartment and hope for the best! More on that later.
