First Adventures in the Louvre

Ah, the Louvre. The most famous museum in all of Paris. The building itself is a marvel, plus all the thousands and thousands of masterpieces tucked into every corner. It's such an amazing place. So amazing, in fact, that it is impossible to see it all in just one visit. Luckily for me, I have all semester to explore.

 A few of my friends and I went on a Friday night after 6pm. At this time, those under 26 years old get in for free; all you have to do is show a form of ID. So we had three hours to roam around the museum. It was nice because there weren't very many other people there that late in the evening. And the approaching dusk outside added a mysterious air to our visit.

I didn't cover very much ground at all in the overall scheme of things, but I'm not worried. Like I said, I have plenty of time to come back. I'll just highlight a few of my favorite exhibits that I saw.

There was a section of rooms that used to belong to Napoleon (for remember, the Louvre was for a long time the royal palace). They were all very fancy and beautiful. It reminded me a lot of Versailles.

reproduction of his throne room - power complex much?

Another cool section was the Egyptian artifacts area. Gotta love that archaeology! There was just so much to take in. All of the hieroglyphics and sarcophagi.

In my exploration I also came across what looked like to be a restoration studio. It looked really cool -  all the various artifacts under repair and being restored. I wish I could have gotten a closer look but there was just a window looking down into the area.

Of course the most popular thing that people go to see in the Louvre is the 'Mona Lisa.' No visit would be complete without a glimpse of the famous portrait. So naturally I had to check it out. Now, most people say that everyone is surprised by how small it is - only 30 x 21 inches. So I was thinking I was going to see a tiny little painting. After all that, I was actually surprised by how big it is. Not that it is a giant painting or anything either, but it's a decent size. And again because we came late in the evening, there wasn't much of a crowd in front of it like there normally is on any given day. So I was able to get up close.

Finally, in the basement of one of the wings of the building, there are remains of the original Louvre fortress that was torn down in order to build the palace. In my architecture class we had learned so much about that part of the Louvre's history, it was really interesting to actual see it.

And here are some pictures of the awesome pyramids of the Louvre:

the controversial main pyramid that became the entrance to the museum and is now the subject of debates about whether it ruined the original facade of the palace

underneath the main pyramid - gotta love that spiral staircase

the upside-down pyramid underneath the Louvre - well known from the movie "DaVinci Code"

A bientot!