The Louvre Museum

As mentioned earlier, one of the main purposes of our trip was so Wayne could fulfill the promise he made years ago to take me to the Louvre. So he did, and we had an absolutely wonderful day exploring this gigantic museum. We picked Wednesday because it was open late, and we were there from opening to closing, over 12 hours. That was a long day, and we still barely scratched the surface of what there is to see!
We prefer the original building over the new pyramid, but the light it provided was nice.
The first order of business was to pick up a map and get an audio guide for Wayne. During his last visit, he did the "walk-through" and this time wanted to go more in depth in as many sections as possible. He chose to start at the bottom, with the "Medieval Louvre" section on the ground floor of the Sully wing. These exhibits showcased the original castle fortress and moat which was unearthed in the 1980's.
That led into the Egyptian Antiquities section, with artifacts that were even more ancient.
Of course one of the unique aspects of this particular museum is that the building itself is amazing. We loved this staircase, which took you to the next level of Egyptian artifacts.

While Wayne finished his detailed exploration of this area, I took a detour through the Richelieu Wing to see the "Decorative Arts," or the rooms where Napoleon and the kings lived. My favorite was the Grand Salon.
It would be nice to have a dining room such as this one for family reunions.
The individual pieces of furniture were detailed and amazing. I particularly liked this desk (top left) that turned into a table (or the other way around) and the baby cradle (with the green curtain).

 I loved all the beautiful chandeliers!
After grabbing a quick sandwich at the Cafe de la Pyramide, we followed the signs, and the crowds, to pay the obligatory visit to the Mona Lisa.
We didn't spend much time there, though, because Wayne was anxious to get started on listening to all the explanations for the Greek and Roman Antiquities displays.
While he did that, I looked at the paintings and displays in the Apollo Gallery, and then walked through the rooms on the first floor of the Denon Wing. There are a LOT of paintings!
Some of the more interesting ones to me were these depictions of David and Goliath, probably because that was the next lesson to prepare for seminary.
There were a lot of renditions of the Madonna, and other bible stories as well.
The view out the windows was almost prettier than what was on the walls.
Once I finished that, it was time to catch up with Wayne, who was making great progress.


A lot of different artifacts have been gathered from Greek and Roman history, some of them big, some of them little, some we liked more than others. However, we didn't like these two ceilings, which were painted within the last ten years or so. In our opinion they're hideous and totally out of place, but we're not art connoisseurs, so what do we know?
By the time Wayne finished listening to the last description, the lights were being turned off and the patrons were leaving. So, we did too, but we stopped to say good-bye to the Winged Victory of Samothrace on our way.
Until next time!

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