Around the World in 330 Days: Brian's Fulbright Journey in China and Elsewhere: Day 312: Paris, Day 2--Le Louvre

Today we went to Le Louvre--at Kerry's suggestion! It was pretty easy getting there via Le Metro--just six stops down on Line 1. The Metro was neat and clean, as I remembered it, with nice cushy striped seats. It's less crowded than the Shanghai subway, not surprisingly. Once we got there, we entered into the mall beneath Le Louvre, which I didn't remember from before. This led us to the museum itself. We saw an inside entry point, but we were told that we had to go OUTSIDE near the pyramid if we wanted priority entrance with the Paris Museum Pass, which we did. It was very hot out; but the architecture outside was stunning. Just a precursor for what was inside the museum. Amazingly enough, the line was only about 5 seconds long, and security was a cakewalk: they didn't even make me take my phone out of my pocket or drink water out of my water bottle, as they do at the Shanghai Museum. Very relaxed security, it seemed.

So then we started on our journey. We used the Rick Steves book as a guide. I'm not going to mention EVERYTHING we saw--that would be impossible--and I'm sure we covered only about 20% of the museum. Here are some of the highlights (mostly Medieval, Italian, and French paintings, with some Greek and Roman sculptures), in the approximate order we saw them in:

Michelangelo, Slaves
Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People
Gericault, The Raft of the Medusa
Leonardo, Mona Lisa (surrounded by AT LEAST 200 people shooting pictures!!)
Veronese, The Marriage at Cana
Ingres, La Grande Odalisque
David, The Coronation of Napoleon and Oath of the Horatii
Raphael, La Belle Jardiniere
Leonardo, The Virgin and Child with St. Anne
Cimbaue, The Madonna and Child in Majesty
Giotto, St. Francis of Assisi
Mantegna, St. Sebastian
Botticelli, Frescoes
Winged Victory
Pre-Classical Greek statues
Venus de Milo
Gallery of Greek statues
Parthenon Friezes
Roman statues (mostly emperors, mostly heads)

It was a very full afternoon. We stopped at one point to have dejeuner in a cafe there (tres cher--about 40 euros for sandwiches, chips, and drinks). And once we were done, we popped in at McDonald's to have more drinks and sandwiches (15 euros!--which is about 17 dollars--insane!). We also got some Louvre souvenirs--small things, gifts. The Metro passageway was malfunctioning a bit on the way back; it wasn't accepting our ticket. So people just walked through the "out" way and no one noticed or said anything. Pretty easy return, otherwise. Just a little bit of rain coming home.

All in all, it was not just a fun day, but one I'll probably never forget.