Want to Come for Christmas?: Chapter 5 and 6: Love the Louvre/Yay for d'Orsay

Chapter 5: Love the Louvre

So there we were, having gone up and down and then rode a very busy train (with a cute little 4-yr-old boy who said "tock-tock-tock" as the sound that we made as the train rode over the tracks) then gone up and down, and down again....we were back in the Louvre. We had 90 minutes before the start of our English mini-tour, so all we were doing was trying not to get lost. Andy started taking photos, and I will give you a preview of our time there - by the time we left the place, at 9:30 that night, he had taken nearly 800 photos. We spent the hour or so that we had in the Sully Wing, looking at Roman and Greek statues. The were marvelous renditions of only the best people of their time i.e. "He was built like a Greek God."

We DID find our way back to the English tour that was being presented to us. And even though we saw the Mona Lisa, and the curtain that the Winged Samothrace was behind, we felt as though we'd like to take it on our own pace. Now of course, if we wanted to do this, it would take something like 7 months to get through all of the works in the Louvre, but we were going to start - right after lunch.

The only place we hadn't been to was the Richelieu Wing: and I put in my vote to go up and look at the paintings from the Netherlands. Now, since it's been a few days since we were there, I've forgotten the names of the individual artists and their paintings, but I've not forgotten the feeling that radiated out of each one. And as I said to Andy (and you can only imagine how he responded) "Hey! Look at this one! He must have been A GOOD ARTIST." Duh. How do you think his works got in the Louvre?

We had another meal, and went to work again, this time up in Napoleon's apartment. Talk about learning something about history! (And also, thinking about the books I'd like to re-read). Napoleon Bonaparte was a proud, arrogant, strong,(maybe A personality?) and every other negative adjective that could describe him. He was also rich as rich could be. But I don't know anything of him, so that's one of the books I've got to pick out and read when I get home. His apartments were lavish. We looked around and thought maybe people had had a good time at his house. But as I said, we'll have to read the book.

It was getting late. We were getting a little silly with the camera. But, we continued to look at the whole Louvre Museum, and saw that many galleries had been standing for over 300 years: and each were built by the tycoon (or the crown) of the day. When asked, it was very difficult to translate to the room's guide that Andy was asking about "the tiles on the floor" or the "corner woodworking." But he did get some working answers.

Walking around the galleries at night was a special thing to do (they're open on Wednesday nights: great time to go): the crowds of people were gone then, the quietness was a great backdrop to study the paintings/drawings/sculpture. We left a darkened hall, and took some pix at the Carrousel of the Louvre, (right on the pyramid that was important in Dan Brown's book) and booked on back for the fourth sleep in Paris.

Chapter 6: Yay for the Musee d'Orsay

Our second day on the Musee circuit was very different from the day before: yet, they held one common denominator - they were all very important works by their respective artists. We were now in the Musee d'Orsay (which people call "the d'Orsay") which is the home of the Impressionists. I have recently read a book called "Claude and Camille", which is about Monet and has reawakened my interest in this style. But when I walked through the d'Orsay, and saw the REAL paintings of poppies, and the ACTUAL canvas of the lily pads, I was stunned. That's not to mention, as at the Louvre, the actual history lessons that came with every painting. We both enjoyed this building, as it was originally a train station, and had been saved by the city fathers: who wanted a home for this art.