Les musées

Cupid and Psyche - The Louvre

My girl Athena

On Monday, Kevin had an early morning class so Walter and I set out to meet Lina and Timo at the Musée de Louvre. I'd been before, when I was here in 2009, but I felt this time through to be a lot more extensive. In fact, Walter and I conquered practically the entire Denon wing- which is a pretty decent feat.

Winged Victory.  Love it.

The four of us started our Louvre experience with the Italian painters section, and yes this was largely due to our desire to visit Mona. The lovely Ms. Lisa is just like I remembered her- a little underwhelming but something you just have to see. Amazing that even in the off season of November it can get so crowded in front of that tiny painting behind bullet-proof glass.

this painting inspired Les Mis

There were several paintings in that section that I thoroughly enjoyed, and also in the next two sections we visited- the Spanish and French painters. A highlight of the latter was Delacroix's "Victory Leading her People", which is quite simply moving.

Lina and Timo had to go at that point, but Walter and I continued through the sculpture section, crossing "Venus de Milo" and "Cupid and Psyche" off our list. We were then satisfied we'd done the Denon wing justice, so we popped back under the pyramids and over to the Richelieu wing.

Napoleanic Apartments

Here we saw more sculptures, and some German, Dutch and other "Nordic" paintings, but the highlight was definitely visiting Napoleon's apartments. I didn't even know they were there! It's really cool that while the rest of the Louvre has clearly been repurposed to house art, the apartments are likely quite close to how they were when Napoleon actually lived there. I was pretty awestruck by the "Grand Salon". Plush red velvet everywhere, huge mirrors and glimmering chandeliers. The "Dining Room" was equally impressive, and I had a soft spot for the display of tea ware.

By the time we were through the apartments we'd spent nearly 3 hours staring at art, so our brains we a little mushy. We ducked in to the Starbucks on rue de rivoli just as a petit shower started trickling down on the streets of Paris, and took a well-deserved coffee break. Walter went full Parisian, reading some Voltaire, and I went full tourist, writing postcards in broker French.

The rain stopped just as we were ready to move on. The day really agreed with us. We took a stroll through the Jardin des Tuilleries and made our way to the Musée de l'Orangerie. Still my favourite part of Paris so far. There is something about Monet's "Les Nympheas", his water lilies, that just makes me feel so at ease and so filled with emotion. The same is somewhat true of Impressionism in general. I just love the style! Walter and I both took our time on the first floor, which is the set of 8 water lily paintings by Monet. You really have to take that time, I think, to appreciate their beauty. We had enough time to view the rest of the museum as well (also lovely as ever) before catching the metro to Mark's house, where he and Kevin made risotto for dinner. We were joined by Lina, Timo, and another Italian friend, Erika, and after dinner we watched "V for Vendetta" to commemorate it being November 5th. Kevin had class early the next morning so he just stayed at Mark's, and Walter and I metro'ed back to Montmartre and went to bed!

The scene at the end of our museum day.  Perfection in Paris.