This week, I spent a lovely evening at the Louvre in Paris.
Spring in Paris is tourist season. (Let’s face it, every season in Paris is tourist season) Despite this, the midweek late evening opening was not as crowded as other times.
And yes – this is another one of those blogs with many , many photos!
Love it or hate it – you have to start at the glass pyramid.
The pyramid was very controversial when it was built in the late 1980’s. Even walking through the courtyard, you can hear how divisive it still is. More than one visitor was overheard to say they hated it – in more than one language.
I don’t hate it. I really like it. It provides a modern and efficient way of getting 15,000 visitors a day in and out of the building.. but more than that – I think it’s quite beautiful, especially on a clear spring even when people are milling around enjoying the weather and the beauty of the lights on the reflecting pools.
I think to have built a structure there that copied the style of the buildings around it would have been a mistake… why put a fake in the midst of this real architectural wonder?
And speaking of masterpieces – there’s THAT painting.
The room containing the Mona Lisa (or La Joconde as the French call her) is the most visited room in what claims to be the most visited museum in the world. I guess that’s fitting for the most famous painting on the planet…
But… It didn’t do it for me.
Maybe it would be different if you didn’t have to fight through the crowds, or stand in a roped off area. Maybe if she wasn’t behind protective glass (which appeared to be tinted to keep light levels low).. But… no… sorry. Not my favourite painting in the world. Not even in that museum.
Maybe she’s been overexposed, in too many bad reproductions. But I found her bland. Pleasant enough, but not really outstanding. (Maybe that just proves I know nothing about art.)
The guides were talking about all the rules Leonardo broke, the new things he pioneered in the painting. But for me – it’s about what I enjoy looking at. What I think is beautiful. Sorry Leo, she’s not your best work.
Having said that – the museum is full or amazing stuff… and many of it’s most beautiful and fascinating pieces are not the most famous ones.
However, the Venus de Milo is one famous treasure that does not disappoint – (webmaster John thinks she has a cute behind… hmm).
My favourite room houses a collection of Assyrian treasures…
Legend claims Napoleon shot off the nose of the Great Sphinx of Giza with a cannon… This is the largest sphinx outside Egypt… what it it with the French and the Sphinx’s nose?
Speaking of gorgeous – there are still some traces of French royal splendour…
And…
Well the list goes on.
I spent more than four hours in the museum and did not see everything. Not even close to everything.
And there’s more to explore that just the collection … there’s the building itself.
I loved the crypt – walking through the excavated foundations of the medieval fortress that occupied this site long before it was a museum – or even a palace.
It was so easy to get lost in the history of the place.
And that, I think, is what makes the Louvre so special.
Not just it’s collection – which is, by any standards, quite staggering – but the building itself. It’s so easy to image Catherine De Medici sweeping down the magnificent staircases.
I can see the Emperor Napoleon seated at the state dining table – drinking wine and talking of his conquests, rather than frozen in some painting on the walls.
The Palace became a museum in 1789. But being a museum is more than just housing art and artifacts. It’s about history. Preserving it and bringing it to life.
You could strip the Louvre of all its fabulous contents – and it would, to me at least – still be one of the world’s great museums.
