Louvre (29/8)

Although tired after all the walking at Versailles Allan went for a run (and got wet again), but as we had risen late we missed breakfast. Allan tried to book a car for later on-line but had difficulties so we decided to do it at the agency at Saint-Lazare station on our way to the Louvre. We became dis-oriented after trying to find a post office first and were looking at a map when a very pleasant Parisienne offered her assistance. As she was going in our direction she kindly escorted us all the way. We found that the Europcar agency was going to charge us almost twice as much as on the internet so Allan decided he would try again. Whilst he was talking to the agent, Jill got talking to another customer who offered to do it for us as she knew of this price differential, but we declined to take up her time and headed off. So far we have had nothing but smiles and assistance from all the locals. It was interesting that the lass that Jill talked to said that if you make an attempt at the language the French are more inclined to help.

On the way to the Louvre we picked up a baguette for breakfast (as you do) and then did a little window shopping, but we were obviously in the higher- (ridiculously-?) priced part of town.

The fight to see the Mona Lisa

Fortunately the Louvre publishes a leaflet with a map of the most visited works of art so that it is easier to plan what you will look at (necessary as there are about 14km of galleries in this the biggest museum in the world. We did go and see the Mona Lisa (or La Gioconda) we were intrigued to see just how many people walked up to what is acknowledged as one of the best paintings in the world, and turn their backs on it to take a selfie with the painting in the background! It is difficult to study it with so many people around, you can't get close to it and it is behind glass (to protect it of course). But at least we got a better idea of the scale of the painting.

We did enjoy coming across other paintings and objects in various galleries which we recognised from books or documentaries.  I guess the key thing we got was the scale of these familiar ones.  Some were a lot smaller than expected and others much larger - and the skill of working on these different scale projects became another aspect of how we considered them as works of art.  Jill's favourite was a small 25cm by 20cm painting of 6 shells. The detail and lighting on the shells was exquisite, but she forgot to note the name of the artist!

Jill's favourite

This Vermeer is tiny

We really only scratched the surface of what the Louvre holds before we became saturated, and will probably have another go next time.

We had specifically gone on Friday night as it was late night closing (9:45pm) for the museum, and were a little surprised that the cafes there were closing at 5pm. Unlike the rest of France, this is obviously one place where you eat early!  

The Raft of the Medusa is huge