Visiting Paris: The Louvre

After the train ride back to Paris we decided to visit the Louvre, it was Friday night and they were staying open until 9pm.
The timing was great, we got there right as the sun was setting…  Other than some of the rooms not being fully lit, it was a fantastic time to visit the Louvre. Very few crowds & most of the stores and other museums in Paris were closed by 6pm so we were able to squeeze more into the day.

We did NOT do the Louvre justice, we merely scratched the surface of what is available to see there. Before we left I had and idea of what I wanted to see.  Hopefully this will not be my only trip to Paris and I will be able to go back and see more.

Once again our Rick Steves iPhone app saved us. It guided us around the museum with audio commentary and a bit of history for each item we saw.

We focused on the Greek & Roman sculpture galleries, French Realism and of course….

Mona….

There were a lot of other people there to see her too… I don’t think I’d want to go on Saturday in high tourist season!!

Jeff and I were talking at dinner that night about the Mona Lisa. Now granted you could not get very close to the painting, so we did not get to see the details well… but personally there were other of daVinci’s paintings that we liked better. I’d be curious to find out how the Mona Lisa became such a cultural phenomenon… I took many Art History & Humanities classes in college, I’ll have to pull out some of my old text books and read up on it.

After a quick tour (less than 3 hours) of the Louvre, we walked around a bit then had dinner at a nice French restaurant near the Louvre. We finished dinner at 10:10… 10 minutes too late to see the Eiffel tower sparkle… (they light show is on the hour).  This is the one thing that I wish we would have seen, but our timing was never right.

Our 2nd day was my favorite there…. The first day I was a bit jet lagged and having a little bit of  anxiety trying to figure out how everything “works”… how to get on the subway,  where to go, what to do… etc… plus I was missing my kids!  (they were safe at home with Grandpa) But after a good nights sleep the first night, and feeling like I was getting my bearings,  we had a great day!!