We visited the Louvre on June 16th. The weather was slightly cooler than the previous day - with a high of 69⁰F and a low of 60⁰ F.
Since we planned to take the subway from the Place Monge Metro station, we headed out to a bakery near the station to get our pastry breakfast. We turned left out of our apartment front gate onto Rue Rollin and walked a short distance to the steps from Rue Rollin down to Rue Monge. We turned right onto Rue Monge and walked a short block and a half to Patisserie & Chocolaterie Pascal Pinaud, 70 Rue Monge.
At the patisserie, My granddaughter and I each had a raisin pastry (pain aux raisins) for €1.10 each. I don’t remember what My grandson had. We stood outside the patisserie and ate our tasty pastries.
After we finished, I went to the Bank BNP Paribas ATM machine next to the patisserie, and withdrew some Euros.
We then walked a couple of feet to the Place Monge Metro station. We took Line 7 six stops in the direction of La Corneuve 8 Mai 1945 to the Palais Royal - Musée du Louvre Metro station.
We came up out of the Metro station at Place du Palais Royal. We crossed Rue de Rivoli and walked through a Louvre entrance called Passage Richelieu, which is intended for visitors who have a Museum Pass or other passes. There were only a few people entering through this entrance. We did have to pass through a security checkpoint.
The Louvre Museum
The Louvre Museum (Musée du Louvre) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mus%C3%A9e_du_Louvre & http://www.louvre.fr/llv/commun/home.jsp?bmLocale=en) is one of the largest museums in the world and is the most visited art museum in the world. The museum owns 380,000 objects and displays 35,000 works of art from prehistory into the 19th Century. Its exhibition areas cover 652,300 square feet. In 2010, it received 8,500,000 visitors. No other art museum even approached that number.
Its annual budget is about $350 million per year. Approximately half that amount comes from the French Government, and the remainder from ticket sales and private contributions.
It has major collections of Egyptian, Near Eastern, Greek, Roman, and Etruscan antiquities; European paintings; prints; drawings; Islamic art; and sculpture.
It is also a historic monument - the Louvre Palace (Palais du Louvre) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palais_du_Louvre#The_.22Old_Louvre.220, which began as a fortress in the 12th Century. The current buildings were started in the middle of the 16th Century under King Francis I and completed in the 19th Century under Napoleon I and Napoleon III. It served as the Royal Palace from the middle of the 13th Century until Louis XIV moved to Versailles in 1678.
The Louvre opened as a public museum in 1793, after the fall of the monarchy.
The Louvre has three large, connected wings:
1. The Richelieu on the north side - named after Cardinal Richelieu, who, under King Louis XIII, played a major role in the creation of the centralized nation of France.
2. The Sully on the east side - named after Bishop Maurice de Sully, who was responsible for the construction of Notre Dame Cathedral.
3. The Denon on the south side - named after the first director or the Louvre.
The Louvre web site has one page with interactive floor plans of all the floors of all the wings (http://www.louvre.fr/llv/pratique/plan.jsp?bmLocale=en).
The Louvre has another web page with virtual tours (http://www.louvre.fr/llv/musee/visite_virtuelle.jsp?bmLocale=en). The virtual tours vary significantly in capability. One of the best is the virtual tour of the Egyptian antiquities. Not only can you get 360 degree views of the many rooms, but you can also click on certain exhibits and get very detailed information about those exhibits.
A third Louvre web page has a searchable database, called the Atlas Database that can be searched by room, work of art, artist, etc. In the room search, you can see views of most rooms, including some ceiling views. (http://cartelen.louvre.fr/cartelen/visite?srv=crt_frm_rs&langue=en&initCritere=true) All three of the URLs I provided are the English versions.
Our Visit to the Louvre
It would take several days to begin to do a decent visit of the Louvre. Our focus was very narrow - the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, Winged Victory of Samothrace, and Egyptian and Near Eastern antiquities.
This was the second visit to the Louvre by my grandchildren, and my third visit.
We entered the Louvre at about 12:30 pm. When we entered by way of the Passage Richelieu, we arrived in the Napoleon Hall. It is the place where most, if not all, visitors start their visits. It is at the lowest visitor level of the museum, and is just below the glass pyramid[1] through which most visitors enter the Louvre by coming down into the Napoleon Hall. The hall has an information desk, free coat check desks, rest rooms, an auditorium, a cafe, and a book shop. I checked my jacket and hat at one of the coat check desks.
We first visited the Denon Wing. We took the escalator up to the ground floor. We showed our Museum Pass to get into the Denon Wing.
We first walked through the Salle du Manège, which had Greek, Etruscan, and Roman statues, as well as a statue of the Egyptian god Horus. One interesting statue was that of a seated barbarian prisoner.
Horus
We then walked through the long Daru Gallery, which had Greek Roman, and Etruscan statues, sarcophagi, etc., from the 3rd Century BC through the 4th Century BC.
Then we walked up a long staircase to see the famous statue - the Winged Victory of Samothrace (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winged_Victory_of_Samothrace), which was found on the Greek island of Samothrace in 1863. It was created about 190 BC.
Winged Vistory
We continued up to the first floor, walking through the several galleries with European paintings from the 13th through 16th Centuries. We entered the long gallery called the Grand Gallery, with 15th-16th Century Tuscan and northern Italian paintings. This gallery is about a quarter of a mile long. The ceiling is arched and most of it is covered with glass, which lets in a lot of natural light.
The first room we came to on the right was the Salle des Etats, the room which houses the Mona Lisa. We entered the room and joined the rest of the crowd viewing this famous work of art.
We then continued on through the Grand Gallery. One painting we admired was Raphael’s depiction of St. George and the Dragon.
As we walked, we heard a strange shrill noise. I asked one of the guards about the noise. He pointed to the low strings strung between poles along each of the walls. They separated the patrons from the paintings. He said there were sensors which detected if a visitor moved beyond the strings. The sensors then set off an alarm.
About two-thirds of the way down the gallery, there was a very elegant work of art on the ceiling. It may have been a bas-relief. It represented some sort of classical mythological scene.
Grand Galley Ceiling
After finishing with the Grand Gallery, we returned to the staircase near the Winged Victory of Samothrace, where we had entered the first floor of the Denon Wing. There, we crossed over into the Sully Wing.
The second room we entered was Room 74. There, we were impressed by a life-sized Attic Greek sculpture of a horse’s head from 6th Century BC.
From there, we entered Room 35, the Clarac Room. On the ceiling of that room was a splendid painting called the Apotheosis of Homer or the Deification of Homer. The original version of this work was painted by Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingress in 1827. That work now hangs on a wall in another room. The version now on the ceiling was painted by Raymond and Paul Balze in 1855. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Apotheosis_of_Homer_(Ingres))
Apotheosis of Homer
Around the base of the ceiling were bas-relief figures depicting various scenes, including “Seven Cities Arguing among Themselves over the Birthplace of Homer.” Another involved Apollo endowing the Iliad and the Odyssey on a number of Muses.
The next room was Room 36, which contained Greek terracotta figures from the archaic and Pre-Classical periods. This room also another superb ceiling painting - Vesuvius Receiving Fire from Jupiter to Destroy the Towns of Herculaneum, Pompeii and Stabiae, painted by François-Joseph Heim in 1827 (http://cartelen.louvre.fr/cartelen/visite?srv=car_not_frame&idNotice=15674).
We continued into Rooms 37 and 38, which contained terracotta figures from the Hellenistic and Roman periods, and from Asia Minor.
We continued through other rooms on the first floor of the Sully Wing for a few more minutes. Then we went down to the first floor of the Denon Wing. In Room 22, which contained Roman sculpture from the 2nd-1st Centuries BC, we saw another terrific ceiling painting - Earth Receiving from the Emperors Hadrian and Justinian the Code of Roman Laws Dictated by Nature, Justice, and Wisdom. It was painted in 1801 by Charles Meynier. (http://cartelfr.louvre.fr/cartelfr/visite?srv=car_not_frame&idNotice=15859)
Ceiling - Room 22
The next room, the Rotunda of Mars, also had a beautiful ceiling - Man Being Formed by Prometheus and Brought to Life by Minerva. It was first painted by Jean-Simon Berthélemy in 1802 and repainted in 1826 by Jean-Baptiste Mauzaisse.
Ceiling - Rotunda of Mars
Then we crossed into the Sully Wing, where the first set of rooms we came to contained Greek, Roman, and Etruscan antiquities. We immediately went to Room 7, the Parthenon Room, where we saw the famous Greek statue known as both the Venus de Milo. It is also called the Aphrodite of Milos, the Greek Goddess of love and beauty. It was sculpted between 130 and 100 BC. It was discovered buried in the ruins of the ancient city of Milos in 1820. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_de_Milo)
We continued through the rooms in this section of the Sully Wing. In Room 11, there was an exceptional, large funerary vase from 2nd Century BC Pergamon.
A couple of minutes later, we saw a very unusual young woman. The sides of her head were shaved. The hair on top was a mixture of black and dyed bright green - with long strands hanging down her back. Her arms were covered with tattoos. My granddaughter took an excellent picture of her.
Venus de Scranton
Our next objective was to see Egyptian antiquities. The Louvre’s collection covers the period from about 4,000 BC to 500 AD. The artifacts in the collection cover many aspects of life from agriculture to furniture to clothing to education to royalty. The collection is displayed on two floors of the Sully Wing - the ground floor and the first floor, one room in the lower ground floor of the Denon wing, where Egyptian Coptic Christian art is displayed, and the lower ground floor where the Crypt of the Sphinx houses the giant Tanis Sphinx.
We started with the Crypt of the Sphinx, where the giant Sphinx of Tanis sits in majestic splendor. This mythical Egyptian creature, with the head of a king and the body of a lion, dates to about 2600 BC, during the Old Kingdom. It is made of granite and weighs 24 tons. It is one of the largest Sphinxes outside of Egypt and was found in 1825 among the ruins of the temple of Amun at Tanis. (http://www.louvre.fr/llv/oeuvres/detail_notice_popup.jsp?CONTENT%3C%3Ecnt_id=10134198673225190&CURRENT_LLV_NOTICE%3C%3Ecnt_id=10134198673225190&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=9852723696500776&bmLocale=en)
Sphinx of Tanis
We then went up one flight of stairs to the lower ground floor of the Sully Wing to view a variety of Egyptian artifacts. We walked through many rooms, enjoying the exhibits.
In Room 5, The Livestock-Rearing, Hunting, And Fishing Room, My granddaughter, who loves cats, hit the feline jackpot. There were a number of ancient Egyptian cat exhibits, including:
1. A cat reclining with her kitten - from the period 664 - 332 BC
2. A cat nursing two kittens
3. A cat playing with her kitten
Cat Reclining with Her Kitten
In Room 10, the Leisure Activities Room, we saw another Sphinx from Tanis. This one had some damage to it. It was about 9.5 tons in weight compared to the larger 24-ton Sphinx in the Crypt of the Sphinx.
In Room 11, the Temple Square Room, was a line of six Sphinx statues. The group was called the Avenue of the Sphinxes and was from the 4th Century BC from the Temple of Saqqara.
The statues in Room 12, the large Temple Room, were very interesting. They included:
1. A number of large black statues of Sekhmet, the lioness goddess. The largest one was from the period 1391 - 1353 BC.
2. A colossal statue of the Pharaoh Ramses II, from the period 1279 -1213 BC.
Statues of Sekhmet
Ramses II
In Room 13, the Royal Tomb Room, we saw the huge stone outer Sarcophagus of Ramses III, from about 1184 BC. It was made of pink granite.
In Room 14, the Sarcophagi Room, we saw a large variety of impressive stone and painted sarcophagi. One interesting display in this room was a group of 70 small blue statues that were supposed to be a group of funerary servants that were buried with a high-level personage. This particular group was from the 23rd Dynasty - 1069 - 945 BC.
Sarcophagus
Funerary Servants
We then went back down to the Crypt of the Sphinx and walked down a couple of steps into the remnants of the original medieval Louvre fortress that was ordered to be built in 1190 AD. We walked around the remains of the walls, the fortress tower, and the moat.
We then made our way to the ancient Persian and Assyrian exhibits on the northern side of the ground floor of the Sully Wing. We started with the Persian exhibits. The first room that impressed us was Room 12a, which contained items from the Palace of Persian Emperor Darius I at Susa from the 6th - 5th Centuries BC. One of the items was one of the 36 huge capitals from the palace. At the top of the capital were two huge stone bulls.
One of 36 Capitals from the Palace of Darius I
Another interesting item was two sets of polychrome glazed brick panels depicting warriors. They were also from the palace of Darius I.
We next went to the Cour Khorsabad on the ground floor of the Richelieu Wing. This courtyard contains items from the palace of the Assyrian King Sargon II. The items are arranged in the order they were situated in the palace. Among the items are huge winged bulls that have the face of men with long beards.
Assyrian Winged Bulls
There were also life-seized figures of Assyrian people, including warriors.
We then decided to go get something to eat. We walked through rooms 33 to 21 on the north side of the ground floor of the Richelieu Wing. These rooms were primarily filled with 18th and 19th Century European sculptures and paintings. On the south side of these rooms, we saw a large courtyard and found our way into it.
The courtyard was the Cour Puget, a pretty, multilevel courtyard which had a number of statues and a glass ceiling about 3 stories up.
From the courtyard, we worked our way back to the Napoleon Hall. In one corner of the hall was a café where we ordered from the counter. All three of us had the Sandwich Mixte - a baguette sandwich with ham and cheese for €4.90 ($7.06). My grandchildren each had a bottle of Orangina for €3.30 each, and I had a bottle of Evian spring water for €2.70. We were happy.
After lunch, we went into the large book shop across the hall from the café. We then walked up the stairs inside the book shop to the gift shop one level up. In 2006, My granddaughter had purchased a pretty, gold-colored Egyptian cat amulet for a necklace. This time, she found matching ear rings, and purchased them for €12.
We then walked out of the west end of Napoleon Hall into the Carrousel du Louvre shopping mall. The mall has over 40 shops and restaurants, including an Apple store, an international food court and a Starbucks.
We first walked into the very busy Apple store. We were searching for a plug adapter so that My granddaughter could connect her Apple computer to my transformer. We did not find what we needed. We could have purchased a special transformer, but did not.
I was also looking for a plug adapter for my camera charger. My charger operates on 110 or 220 volts, but the plug was a 110 plug. I had mistakenly brought a British plug adapter. Fortunately, I had brought two spare batteries, so I did not really need the adapter.
There was also a Virgin Megastore, where we went to look for the adapters. No luck. While we were there, My grandson saw an Abyssus Razer gaming mouse that he wanted to buy. It was €39.99 ($57.57). I told him he shouldn’t buy it because it was probably cheaper in the U.S. - because the European VAT taxes result in higher prices. When we returned to the apartment and I checked on Amazon.com, the price there was $20 less.
We walked around the mall and checked out the shops. We then returned to Napoleon Hall, where I retrieved my jacket and hat.
We left the Louvre via the Passage Richelieu at about 5 pm.
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