Sunday in Paris: The Louvre

The first royal "Castle of the Louvre" was founded in what was then the western edge of Paris by Philip Augustus in 1190, as a fortified royal palace to defend Paris on its west against Plantagenêt attacks. The first building in the existing Louvre was begun in 1535, after demolition of the old Castle. Subsequent kings of France added further wings to extend the Grande Louvre. From 1794 onwards, France's victorious revolutionary armies brought back increasing numbers of artworks from across Europe, thus establishing it as a major European museum.

On a Sunday access to the Louvre is free, with the result that it is terribly crowded, even outside the height of the tourist season. In any case, we were determined to see as much of the Louvre as we could in a day, so patiently waited in the queue to get inside. 

The Louvre.

We particuarly wanted to see the Monet and Renoir exhibitions, but learnt that those hall were closed on a Sunday. In any case, as we discovered, the main collections of Renoir, Monet, Manet, van Gogh, and so on, are housed in the Musee d'Orsay. No-one warned us that museums in Paris are closed on a Monday, so, since Sunday was devoted to the Louvre and we left again on Tuesday morning, we did not get to the Musee d'Orsay on this trip.

The Louvre being mostly a huge art gallery, we could not take pictures of our favourite paintings, but the statues were equally impressive. This photo is of a statue of a girl with a bee, focussing on the bee. 

The hall of beautifully restored Renaissance sculptures on the lower ground floor had us gaping in awe.

Our favourite artists amongst the painters were the 18^th century guys like Joseph Vernet (1714-1789) – we found his cityscapes of old Naples with Mount Vesuvius erupting in the background, panoramas of Venice, and so on, fascinating.

Of course we had to see Michaelangelo's Mona Lisa, but what a disappointment that was! Firstly it was a nightmare to get close enough to the painting to see it, pushing your way through the mass of humanity gathered there and, secondly, the painting itself is much smaller than anticipated so one cannot see it very well at all even from the closest vantage point allowed.