The Louvre

This morning was not a good morning. Having only gotten to bed at 2am last night, the alarm went off at 06:30 so that we could make an early start to get to Versailles. Luckily I checked the guidebook before getting too far along with that plan, as we discovered that the Chateau is closed on Mondays. A hasty review of plans followed and a phone call to Ping to let him know we weren’t going today after all. He was quite happy about that as he was still half asleep and apparently it was raining heavily on his hotel – even though it was only spitting at ours.

So we started breakfast in our apartment, eating the pastries, brioche and oranges we had bought yesterday – but only having water to drink, as nowhere here in this city, the centre of café societie serves coffee ‘to go’ and all the shops were closed yesterday!

By the end of it all, I was feeling thoroughly hacked off with Paris – with their bizarre opening hours, with the unreliability of the hotel’s Internet provision, with not being able to get coffee for breakfast, with having bought juicing oranges rather than eating ones (which were near-impossible to peel!) We decided I probably needed more sleep, so I had a nap for an hour or so, while Brett was a hero and zipped off to the local supermarket and stocked up on the essentials to make future breakfasts more enjoyable.

By about 10:30 I was awake again and the funk had lifted, so we set our sights on a first attempt at the Louvre. At the Palais Royale Metro station, we ran into John W who was looking for the fabled ticket machines to buy entrance for the group from his hotel. We found the machines in the shopping centre attached to the Louvre (and they steadfastly refused both my and Brett’s credit cards again) and bought our tickets. John was relieved that the queue was so short (only three people) as he said the line at the museum entrance was LONG and slow moving.

Sure enough once we were under the pyramid, the queue, snaked all the way around, and up into the courtyard above. John said it then circled the pyramid again above ground. How can so many people not have a clue about all the other ways of getting tickets to the museum that don’t involve queuing for two hours??

After saying ‘hi’ to everyone who’d come with John we all went our separate ways around the museum. Brett and I started with the Large Format French Paintings galleries, as I wanted to show him the massive Coronation of Napoleon I, by Louis David, a print of which hangs on our lounge wall as a memento of my last visit to Paris in the late ‘90s. From there we circled the Grand Gallerie, stopped off in the Salle des États to see the Mona Lisa (which still manages to underwhelm me) and then viewed an exhibition of the French Crown Jewels – some of which were quite stunning – in a beautiful side gallery.

It could have been ‘LGMC day’ at the Louvre today. As well as running into John W & Co on arrival, we also ran into Nick & John in the Crown Jewels exhibit and, while we were talking to them, we were passed by Gerry, PK & Co. Later on, we ran into yet more of our brethren in the foyer!

After that though, we were flagging, so we took a break to quaff some coffee and munch some pastries before crossing to the Richelieu Wing intent on seeing some more French painting. In the end though, we never made it to the paintings because we found the sculpture galleries on the lower floors so entrancing. There are two main galleries of sculpture, both set around glass-roofed courtyards of pale stone. Here the larger works are magnificently displayed on many levels, for you to wander among, while the smaller works are contained in the surrounding building.

I am not quite sure where I picked up my love of classical sculpture – possibly in Guadalest in Spain, where I used to admire the bronze miniatures each time I took a tour group up to the village – but I have been sold on the form for a while. Brett wasn’t too keen beforehand but became a rapid convert today: A lot more interesting than paintings.

I turned into a Japanese tourist for a few hours and spent my time happily snapping away at different angles and the different details.

After the two galleries of sculpture though, we had had our fill and went in search of the shops and a train home. Shops there were aplenty, however none of what we liked was affordable, so we’ll have to make do with the photos remember our day here. Although we both want to come back if we get the chance, I’m not sure we’ll be able to because we have such a packed schedule for the week.