The Paris Experience - Louvre

Musée du Louvre, Richelieu Wing

The present-day Louvre has been the result of a series of successive building projects completed over the past 800 years. Wikipedia page. It is located on the Right Bank in the 1er arrondissement between the Rue de Rivoli and the Seine River, the same river that flows to where the Eiffel tower is.

Home to many notable works of art and perhaps the most visited museum in the world, the Louvre used to be a palace under the reign of Philip II.
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We arrived in Paris coming from Marne La Vallee via RER at the Opera Station, hubby brought his navigator so it didn't took us much time to find the museum. We had some photo op on the way, which I will upload in the following posts.

An antique dealer's shop opposite the Louvre. We were quite ecstatic seeing this, we actually thought that this is the musem. lol.

Inscription at the entrance of the Louvre Museum.

(Half) Pyramid at the courtyard. The pyramid being the entrance to the Louvre.

View from inside the pyramid. Escalators and elevators are available for use.

Niké en chiton ionique. Also called the Winged Victory of Samothrace. It is one of the surviving masterpieces of Hellenic sculpture despite its significant damage. Believed to date from 220-190 BC.

Taking a rest from the long walk as hubby takes more photos of the paintings on display.

Greek sculptures--severed head. Either the parts were lost or the sculptor intended it that way, since during that certain era, sculptors would make less visible parts of statues, also body parts are made separately then assembled together.

Three muses...hah...hubby's fave? Nah, he posed beside almost every statue.

Venus de Milo. One spectator said that it was perhaps during transport, that the hands of the statue got lost. I jokingly said Hercules threw a discus and accidentally destroyed the arms...referring to the Disney movie Hercules. =D Kidding aside, here's what really happened.

Painting on the ceiling...this could be of Roman origin.

Great sphinx of Tanis. This is one of the largest sphinxes outside Egypt. According to archaeologists, certain details suggest that this sphinx dates to an earlier period - the Old Kingdom (c. 2600 BC).

La Joconde, The Mona Lisa. Perhaps the most famous painting in the world, a portrait by Leonardo da Vinci of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo, that has been finally established as a fact just this month. The La Joconde has been subject to many critics and research and at one time; a robbery. Thus, it has been displayed at the museum's Salle des États inside a purpose-built, climate-controlled enclosure behind bullet proof glass. A wooden rail prohibits the viewers from coming too near the painting. But the guards were so kind to have let us go past it, see here.

By the way, Jean Reno who played Bezu Fache in the movie Da Vinci code which was set at the Louvre, did a narration: the Da Vinci code soundwalk for the museum. The audio guide gives the listener historical facts and meanings of many paintings at the museum.

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The Louvre is not just big...but really really big, we were not able to finish touring it. Half day won't be enough for hubby, an artist and admirer of art and for me, an art lover who once dreamed of becoming an artist. =P The Louvre is truly an art lover's haven, no wonder it gathers as much as 8million visitors a year!

(This Photo is courtesy of the Free online photos.)