Paris Day 5: The Luvre

I was determined to have a proper breakfast, so I did a little serach and we found this place right around the corner from the hotel.

Let me say, they didn’t disappoint. Frothy dark chocolate hot coco, crosaunts from teh best bakery in Paris, bread, butter and jam.

Then came the omelette and the salad. Needless to say, we were stuff by the time we were headed over the Louvre that day.

We decided to take Lime scooters to the museeum. It was a 10 minute ride, and it was a blast. There is some really amazing commuter infrastructure in Paris. Including bike tunnels under the city that go miles long. Which we took to the museum.

We drove right up to the pyramid. It was a seriously magical moment. Surreal to say the least.

We had purchased tickets ahead of time, so were in another line in another area.

This line was for serious patrons only. This man behind Karl was unnecessarily pressing on him from behind.

From the moment we got into the building there was famous art everywhere.

Zac had been in Paris a couple of months earlier, and tipped us off to hustle up the Mona Lisa first thing. In an effort to avoid a huge line. So we did.

Much of the art in this area was from a similar ear, and theme. Christ, on a cross.

We made it to the room where the lady herself lives, and the line was not bad.

I sent a Polo to Mom and the kids. I was pretty stoked.

She was actually bigger than advertised. I wish I could have taken time to look at her, but honestly, the image is so saturated in media, I know it all by heart already.

Other moving pieces in the room. This one below, so effecting.

Facing the Mona Lisa is this spectacularly wall sized mural that is 15 feet tall and 25 feet or more wide.

Leaving the area, we found this guy.

And more seemingly kookie Christ themed art. I think this might be Paul? It wasn’t labeled so I can’t be sure.

This one of young John the baptist, I had never seen one like this before, I found it moving.

Here, one of my absolute favorite places of the day, Winged Victory. The placement in the room, and again the sheer size of it. The movement achieved in stone is so…moving. 🙂 seriously though, I felt like she was about to jump off her pedestal and fly away. It really made me sad that the piece was disfigured, I wish I could see it in it’s original state.

Onto a fresco by Botticelli himself.

Here is where I will say, the Louve itself, outside of the art that hangs in every space, is a marvel. So when you go, don’t forget to look up! There are intricate murals, fresco, carvings, and sculpture on every wall, that are just a part of that room.

Here we see a continuation of the pantheon theft we whitnessed in Athens. The Louve too has pieces from that great building. Here are theres.

My post from the day we visited the Parthenon museum, scroll to the end of the post, and you can see the hodge podged painstaking work done to piece together the monument from collections all over the world.

Sunday in Athens-Day Three

More ancient Greek granite sculpture, I love the details of the hair. And the HUGE bowl, is acaully a star/sun chart/map/calendar that shows the suns path across the sky every year.

I know nothing about this guy, except that I love him.

Loving these heads. They remind we of those heads that were taken from statues in Albania.

Here in this Greek antiquities section we found Venus De Milo.

Faces stolen by someone.

Above a recreation of the porch of Maidens from the Parthenon in Athens.

We had reached our time slot for the DeVinci exhibit, so we went down to check it out.

Let me just say, this was an incredible exhibit, and I wish that I could have had another hour to study, consider and “regarde” every piece here.

But is was SO insanely crowed that we felt a bit rushed, and jostled every step of the way. I had more people shove, yell, or bug me here than anywhere else but the Eiffel tower elevator.

The cool thing about this exhibit, is that they broke down many of his famous art works, showed his prossess thorugh even small parts of his work, like the way a sheet would hang on the a person’s lap, drawn, then sculpted, the cast in bronze.

There were sketches I had never seen before.

They even x-rayed famous painting for see what order and process things were done. Ideas that were painted over were redelivered, and sometimes he had apprentices do some early work for him, and that was visable.

Painting and x-ray.

The last supper is a famous fresco done by DeVinci painted on the wall in a church in Milan. However, this other copy exists, and is a part of this exhibit.

Then here, the most fasinating part, his drawings, sketches, and journals.

As I was trying to take this picture a little kid came up with his little camera behind me…ugh.

This area most of all had grumpy patron pressing on every side.

There were other s cultures and painting.

Even an x-ray of the Mona Lisa.

And pieces by other artists showing is continued influence.

After all of that we took a little break. Breakfast had been so HUGE, that we just got a little drink.

Here we are in the wooden painted sculpture area. Which to be honest isn’t something I had really seen before.

Moving on to plaster and stone sculpture again. There was even an area here called the touching room. Where you were allowed to touch and feel the different types of carvings.

These guys, living out a version of hell where you have to hold a building on your back.

Then to the ancient Arabic section.

Their early work in glass was truly inspiring.

Then to Egyptian and Greek and Roman mummies. They would paint the actual faces on to the mummies. I find these images HAUNTING, and have thought of this often since we saw them. I know women who look like these. It made me feel so connected to the past.

Then these guys, HIYA!

It had been HOURS since we came in, and we it was disorienting but a little view of the courtyard was unexpectedly grounding.

Egyptian and Roman sculpture…

Above, a weird theme in this ear, baby boys being jerks to animals.

In the basement of the Louvre, there are remnants of what it first was, a fort. These are some of it’s original walls, and below ground moat, before it was a palace, then a museum.

This guy.

A very modern installation.

Just stuff in the halls and stairwells, don’t forget to look up!

Onto what was probably 15 rooms or more of Grecian Urns. The sheer volume was mind blowing.

Karl…

Then into everyone’s favorite, Egypt.

What follows is the gold standard of Ancient Egyptian antiquity. Again, MIND BLOWN.

Karl took these…

Don’t forget to look up. Again, room after room filled with mural, after mural… Also that dog is breathing fire.

We entered the mummy rooms. This sarcophagus, the carving in the bottom of it, and Karl acting weird. Again, VOLUME. I had never seem so many fantastically preserved sarcophagi in one place. I just had never imagined them. You get the idea that only a few people ever had them, then here there are SO many.

Mummified animals! Cants, birds, mice, fish! Then a mummy!

Here is the Polo we sent to the kids, and their reactions.

Into the ancient Babylonian (?) area. This HUGE vase, or pot, or something. SO massive. All I could think was, “HOW? HOW did they get this in here? They would have had to use a crane, take down a wall, reinforce the floor…SO enormous. Not to mention, that had to get it to FRANCE!”

While sitting down and resting my feet, I found a ring, that I want.

Here, another view of the courtyard below.

After getting lost, stuck in a stairwell, then separated for a while we found ourselves on the top floor…with some extremely famous paintings.

Here we found several paintings by George de LaTour. The one, “The Cheat with the Ace of Clubs” was one I learned in my humanities class in college.

But it was not my favorite piece of his there.

I LOVE the way he uses light.

These two, both of Jesus as a baby and a child.

Moving on. More gilded frames.

And onto some more modern pieces.

Dracula!

All of these pieces capture human emotion, in paint, which is crazy impressive.

Then we found the first ever “Sweet Bro Selfie” It’s real. This is Joseph Ducreaux. He lived at the time of Louis the 16th, and painted the last portrait of him before he was killed. He was all about painting real human expression. Not normally captured.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Ducreux

I love this Milk Maid. She is so cool.

Onto crafted art. Crown jewels, swords, chests, etc.

Another boy begin mean to an animal.

There was a period where Napoleon III lived here. So some of the grand rooms have been preserved. They look like the celestrial rooms in the Salt Lake temple.