The travels of Tim and Megan: Return to Paris

Sunday

We were a little slower out of the blocks on Sunday after our long day of trekking on Saturday. We left the hotel around 10am and grabbed some breakfast from a little bakery along the road from where we were staying. The croissants / pastries are so much better in France - so fresh and soft! We made our way by metro to Le Louvre, the world's largest museum. The line was actually very short and we were inside in no time.

Le Louvre houses nearly 35,000 pieces displayed over its 60,000 square metres. It contains some of the world's most celebrated artworks and displays almost every genre of Art. In addition, the collection displays pieces of Egyptian, Oriental, and Islamic origin. Notable works include Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa and Madonna of the Rocks, Jacques Louis David's Oath of the Horatii and Alexandros of Antioch's Venus de Milo.

Le Louvre is absolutely enormous. It has four floors and each floor is broken into three areas. It would probably take 2-3 days to see everything, so we had to make a call. We decided we most wanted to see the First Floor, which contains large format French paintings and Italian paintings from the 13th to 17th centuries, including Le Louvre's biggest draw card, the Mona Lisa, so we headed straight there. Well, if truth be told, we got lost on our way "straight there"...but we got there eventually.

We spent over an hour looking at the French and Italian paintings. We were particularly impressed by The Raft of the Medusa and The Consecration of Napoleon. Many of the ceilings in the museum are beautifully decorated as well, so there really is plenty to look at! We then arrived in the room that houses the Mona Lisa, which was bursting at the seams with people pushing to get a closer look at the famous piece. Surprisingly, we were allowed to photograph it (and all of the paintings actually). Just along from the Mona Lisa is the Apollo Gallery, which contains some treasures from the reign of King Louis XV, including his coronation crown. This room was surely one of the most impressive in the whole museum, not only for the treasures on display and the beautiful art work on the walls, but also for the stunning decorated ceiling (see photo below).

We wandered through the rest of the First Floor, passing by bronze sculptures and a section dedicated to the Renaissance era, full of huge tapestries and collections of china and ceramics. Then we arrived at the lavish Napoleon III apartments. These were spectacular - similar to the state apartments at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle (see pictures below). It is no surprise that the people of France revolted and overthrew the monarchy! Megan decided to return to the French/Italian paintings section we had come from to get a closer look at Leonardo's Virgin of the Rocks and the Venus de Milo, while Tim and Dianne made their way to the Ground Floor to check out the 18th to 19th century French sculptures. There are literally hundreds of magnificent sculptures, each of them so detailed and precise. We were very impressed.

After a few hours in Le Louvre, we were rather hungry and we headed back to Ile Saint-Louis for lunch. The restaurant we had planned to go to claimed that they had finished serving lunch for the day (at 2pm), so we found another place along the road called Sorza that served Italian food. It was delicious - Megan and Dianne had grilled aubergine and spinach ravioli, while Tim was less adventurous and had spaghetti, tomato and basil. It was a nice little restaurant with a relaxed atmosphere, once the loud obnoxious American students had left (any Americans reading this blog, please learn to use your "inside" voice).

After lunch, we rolled back on to the streets of Ile Saint-Louis for a final look at a few shops (Megan bought a beautiful pink scarf and Dianne invested in a black beret - tres francais!). Then we headed back to the hotel to pick up out bags and made our way to Gare du Nord to catch the Eurostar back to London. There were some very tired legs on the journey home!

Au revoir