Louvre

This is a unique, breathtaking, enormous, dazzling, dizzying place. I hope to come here again one day – one day in the OFF season when there are not SWARMS of tourists behaving touristy. I mean, I’m trying not to make an absolute value judgment about someone who holds rabbit ears above a statue of Trajan. I’m trying not to condemn the people who push their red faced, miserable children in front of the Venus de Milo and yell at them to smile. I’m trying to maintain the position that everyone is entitled to experience the treasures of this place in whatever way works for them….I just don’t want to do it with them.

Still, it was a terrific experience.

My favorite part about the Louvre is that, as the instructor in my online class said, “the Louvre displays its own history.” From the buildings to the collections, everything relates to the development of this place from a medieval fortress to royal palace to state building to national monument to the Grand Louvre. It all speaks of royal patronage, spoils of war, propaganda, reverence. It reflects building up, tearing down, and preserving. It is, itself, a rich and complex story of France and Paris.

Architect IM Pei insisted on excavating under the surface buildings – he said that was the only way the buildings could function as a museum. When excavation began, they found the remnants (ruins is the wrong word) of the original medieval fortress. They preserved them, so now visitors can walk around the walls, peer into water wells, and even enter an entire room. Fantastic

What it looked like in 1200

After you walk around what's left of the perimeter, you find the Salle Saint Louis. This is the only remaining residential part of the fortress. It is mind-blowing. They keep it in minimal light, presumably to give the visitor a sense of what it must have been like.

Are those sleeping cubby-holes?

This was the original art on the walls of the original building of the Louvre.

Once I got out of the medieval Louvre, it felt like I was swimming upstream and trying to stay afloat. Here are a few of my favorites from a 6 hour trip to a place that probably should be given 600 hours to even begin to properly comprehend its treasures.

The death menu of Tepemânkh

Tepemânkh was apparently one Egyptian who loved him some food. This was found in Giza - dates to 2350-2300 B.C.

The hieroglyphics in each square translate to a food. For instance, the top row (the highest row with full squares), from left to right is cake, bread, pigeons. The one under it is wine, wine, death wine. 

Women are the pillars of society

Code of Hammurabi - 1772 BC

An eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth

Louis XIV (circa 1700) commissioned a copy of a renaissance tapestry (circa 1300)of the Battle of Zama (circa 202 BC). Scipio defeated Hannibal.

OK - after seeing Napoleon III's apartment in the Richelieu wing, I definitely do not need to go to Versailles, or any of the other chateaus. Makes me sick. This guy. So, Napoleon Bonaparte was a military genius who staged a coup d'etat and seized power from the fragile constitutional government following the French Revolution. Not cool, right?

Well, THIS guy - Napoleon's nephew - was elected president of the Republic by the peasants after the second French Revolution, and used that power and position to establish himself as Emperor. Napoleon III. He had a lavish living quarters appointed in the palace, and this may quite possibly be what made me sick enough to have to go to the hospital.

I have to remember to turn my phone the right way to take videos. So, I was standing there like a crazy lady laughing at the splendor - a woman next to me started chatting, and it turns out she lives in central Texas. Small world!

After a cup of tea at the Angelina cafe, I finally steeled myself for the plunge into the Grand Gallery. There were so many people moving as a stream towards the Mona Lisa, I was swept along, and if I wanted to stop and see something, I would have to duck and dive, or just stop and get bumped into. 

Honestly, I was getting a little tired of all the royalty and religion as themes in the paintings. Delighted to discover the hilarious and amazing Giuseppe Arcimboldo's Four Seasons in the middle of a ba-jillion depictions of the Virgin Mary.

This is the third Titian I have seen with mine own eyes. Gotta love the standard of female beauty in the Renaissance.

But why are only the ladies naked?

This was right about the time that my stomach started acting up. I mean, this was right about the time that it seemed as if evil forces were sawing at my mid-section with rusted, serrated machetes. So, since it was 6 deep at the Mona Lisa, I took a look from afar (closer than this picture, though) and headed out. 

People warned that you couldn't see everything in one day - they were right. But what I found was that immersing myself in so much culture and history was in and of itself impressive. Next time (in the lowest tourist season, with my kiddo) I will try to go more than once, for less time each visit. But for now, I am thrilled that I got to experience it.