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TRAVEL - Paris: Louvre Museum / Musée du Louvre Home: greenlightwrite.com featuring |
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Day One of Paris 2006 - Louvre Day Three (Part One) - Île de la Cité Day Three (Part Two) - Petit Palais and Napoleon's Tomb Day Three (Part Three) - Arc de Triomphe Day Six - Paris - Montmartre, Eiffle Tower and more please click on the photos to enlarge them
What to do on your first day in Paris? We were going to begin sightseeing on the Ile de la Cité, the island heart of old Paris (think Notre Dame Cathedral), by taking the Metro (subway) to the Palais Royal and walking, but the day (March 2006) was cold and rainy. We got back on the Metro and headed for the Louvre Museum exit, determined to make good use of the three day museum passes (Cartes Musées-Monuments from interMusées) that had been delivered to our hotel.
The Louvre is not just big, it's very big, the largest museum in the world. The modern glass pyramids are surprisingly OK, and the palace itself is grandly imposing. It was begun in 1190 by King Philippe-Auguste (see right column mini review of A Lion in Winter) as a deterrent to Viking raids.
FranÇois I, a hearty monarch and contemporary of England's equally hearty Henry VIII, began major upgrades and made art purchases including the Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa (La Giaconda). Alterations and art acquisitions continued sporadically. The palace was made into a museum during the French Revolution, though Napoleon Bonaparte and his immediate successors took it back from the people. By 1855, the Louvre was once one of the world's great museums. We were overwhelmed by the museum's vast collections and hope to return someday to absorb a little more, but it's hard to overstate the power and beauty of the Winged Victory of Samothrace, one of the many exhibits any visitor can photograph.
The Venus de Milo, a 2nd century BCE sculpture of Aphrodite found on the Greek island of Melos, draws an equally big crowd.
Other wonders in the Louvre include an extensive collection of Egyptian artifacts and some of the mighty winged bulls of the Assyrians.
Like its priceless collection of paintings, the Bonaparte rooms are unique to the Louvre. They were lavishly decorated by the Empress Eugénie during the Second Empire, which ended in 1870.
Despite its 500,000+ collection of
treasures, the Louvre remains a palace, worth exploring for its own sake -
even
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