thursday, july 19

we woke up at 9am, got breakfast at a bakery, and then headed to the louvre museum. we took the metro, and it turns out that the connecting train was closed for the summer, so we had to walk the rest of the way to the louvre. that's okay though, because it was a nice day and i don't mind walking around paris.
ah...a beautiful day at the louvre.

we got in, bought a two-day museum pass, and started walking around the museum. the artwork was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G, but so overrwhelming because there was so much of it. there is no describing how big the museum is. i wish i had worn a pedometer, we must have walked miles and miles to see some of those works.

first: ancient grecian sculptures.

later: venus de milo. and lots and lots of people. the room was so crowded you couldn't even move. i'm lucky i got this close.

later later: this artwork. it was just a big, curved piece of polished metal, but the curve did interesting things. if you stood far back, you were up-side down, such as i am in the picture above (that's me in the white shirt and black pants). however, if you stand close to the work, you appear right-side up, such as the lady on the far left. the weirdest part about it, is that as you walk forward, something really freaky happens because your image is flipping from up-side down to right-side up. i can't really describe it, but it trips you out and makes you think you are hallucinating, or maybe that your brain has just exploded. it's awesome.

later later later: cool old statue of a man wrestling a snake.

later later later later: the code of hammurabi. this interesting rock is ancient babylonian (1760 bc), and is carved with the rules of the day. things like: "any one bring an accusation against a man, and the accused go to the river and leap into the river, if he sink in the river his accuser shall take possession of his house. But if the river prove that the accused is not guilty, and he escape unhurt, then he who had brought the accusation shall be put to death, while he who leaped into the river shall take possession of the house that had belonged to his accuser." pretty heavy stuff.

also: crown jewels. no pictures allowed, but i sneaked one anyway.

next: the nike of samothrace. i love this statue. it looks so much cooler in person, too.

after: a long hallway with lots of cool paintings, on the way to the mona lisa. we came on a really busy day.



highlight: mona lisa. this picture was taken after i elbowed my way to the front of a very large, very compact crowd. i got a few bruises from the shuffle. what you don't see are the hundreds of people pressing up against me, the dozens of guards, the plethora of security cameras, and the bullet-proof glass. what you do see is the painting and the little boy that sneaked under the railing to get a better look. and his large white head bandage.

i have never been impressed with reproductions of the mona lisa. they just aren't that great. and the painting is tiny. not impressive at all. however, there is something about the painting that is captivating when you are standing right in front of it. it has a magical quality that brings it to life.

my favorite part was the french masters gallery. this gallery featured really, really huge paintings by french dudes in the 1800's.

but first: la grande odalisque by the painter ingres. it is a very famous painting, and rightly so.


this is the hall of the french masters. the paintings in here were HUGE! and absolutely fantastic. it was so cool to see all of the paintings that i had studied in school right in front of me. to see all the details and every brushstroke and everything all at once as it was meant to be seen: on a huge scale!

we left the louvre at about 6pm, after a full day of walking and gawking. we had dinner at a little cafe across the seine from the louvre and had a great time relaxing and recounting the day's adventures. i asked for a recommendation from our waiter, and he suggested the sea bass. it came out whole and grilled, and then the waiter took out a dish filled with something (i think it was alcohol), lit it on fire, and poured it over my fish while it was still burning. it was awesome, but i did think for a second that i was going to catch on fire. those flames were pretty big. once again, i finished the meal with creme brulee.

after dinner, paula and i walked to the musee d'orsay to marvel at all the super famous works of art housed there. like this one:that's me, posing with manet's olympia, influenced by ingres' la grande odalisque, which i saw earlier in the day at the louvre.

the orsay was once a train station, which was converted into a museum. the architecture is beautiful, and the building is a work of art in itself.the orsay.

an early monet, pre-impressionism.

we left when the museum closed, and headed back to our hotel room. it was a good, long, tiring day full of great art. sunset over the seine.