Tracy was amazing at helping us to navigate the metro. It was speedy, and because we had a three-day unlimited pass, we took the Metro everywhere. By the end of the trip, Nora had also become quite good at the navigation, and we flew thought the stops. The doors are not like the one's on the subway, and must be opened using a small handle. We figured that out pretty quickly, then Tracy and Nora figured out the tricks to making the doors open quickly and with less effort.
We decided to enter the Louvre through the pyramid and the view was worth the trip up from the Metro, then back down the escalators.
The building itself was amazing. Once a palace, well, several palaces, and now the second most visited tourist spot in the world (we will hit the first later in the week).
We took the advice of the many guidebooks we read, and made our way to the main attractions.
Winged Victory was impressive.
We saw the Mona Lisa, and it was every bit a much a circus as we had heard it would be: pushing, shoving, jostling our way to the front for a brief view of the painting was well with it. It was beautiful, and we enjoyed the explanation and the speculation as to why it was likely the world's most recognizable painting.
The Venus de Milo was another real treat. Amazing to think a Greek farmer found her when plowing his field. what a discovery. She is beautiful, and I particularly enjoyed the speculations about the likely pose of her arms.
Other favorites included the Feast of Cana, the largest painting in the Louvre with more than 120 individual figures in the painting (I am not clear if that counts the dogs). It seemed the people were out of place for my understanding of the likely circumstances of Jesus first miracle as the setting seemed grand and ornate. We learned the painting was commissioned by a group of Benedictine Monks in Venice. They ate in silence and the painting was there for their contemplation and entertainment. The setting was modified by the painter to show the feast in an elaborate and luxurious Venetian setting instead of the less inspiring and more modest setting in Cana.
Tracy was particularly fond of a painting of David and Goliath replicated on each side of piece of slate. It was commissioned to be painted on both sides of the slate as a sort of competition to see the merits of painting versus sculpture. We all commented that Goliath's hair looked so soft and real that we wanted to touch it.
We also enjoyed a few pieces from the Parthenon in Greece (not the one in Nashville :) )
Next stop was a return to the Jardines do Tuilleries where we had eaten the previous day on our bike tour. We had a leisurely lunch, and then walked through the gardens to the Concorde, a lovely fountain where we sampled the gelato (which they scooped and sculpted into a rose) then walked across the bridge of locks to the Musee D'Orsay to see the more modern Masters and Impressionists.
The Bridge of Locks is just one bridge down from the Bridge of Alexander that was part of our bike tour. For just 3 Euros you can buy a lock, write your name on it with a Sharpie, lock it to the bridge, then toss the key off the bridge assuring your love forever.
The Musee D'Orsay was incredible. The building itself, an old train station that was almost destroyed, was breath taking. We were all a bit surprised when we entered the Impressionist exhibit, which had just been renovated. We had all seen many of these pieces at the Frist Gallery when they were on display 2 Christmases ago. We enjoyed seeing the paintings again, and it left a lot of time to move on to the Van Gough's exhibit and the Pointillist exhibit.
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