Paris: The Birthday Trip - Day 6

Venus de Milo

We arrived at the Louvre about an hour before opening time and found fifty or sixty people already in line. By opening time there were hundreds of people in an organized line snaking back and forth across the main courtyard (the Cour Napoléon). Fortunately, the admission procedure is very efficient and shortly after opening time we were in I. M. Pei's glass pyramid (and out of the sun), had our tickets, our bags or purses had been x-rayed and hand checked, and we were on our way down the stairs to the underground lobby of the Louvre.

Knowing that people had been flooding into the Louvre through several entrances, we decided to go straight to the Mona Lisa in the faint and ultimately futile hope of beating the crowds. Our progress was delayed by the magnificent paintings on display along the path to the Mona Lisa - including a stunning cluster of da Vinci's paintings which we returned to after viewing the Mona Lisa (from a distance of several metres and through a thick sheet of armoured glass and surrounded by a growing crowd of tourists like ourselves).

Nothing prepares you for the reality of the Louvre. We have a number of wonderful books about the contents of the Louvre but no book can convey the emotional impact of finding yourself in the presence of so much beauty, not to mention finding yourself in the presence of so many of the paintings and sculptures and other objects which you had never expected to see outside of those books.

We spent the entire day in the Louvre and saw only a fraction of what it has to offer. We left exhausted, overwhelmed, grateful, and achingly envious of those who are able to come here whenever they wish.

left: View from the Louvre of the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel with the Eiffel Tower in the background.
centre: Architectural detail of the Louvre.
right: The Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel in the Tuileries viewed from the Louvre. Look through the central arch and you can see the gold-tipped Obelisk in the Place de la Concorde and behind that the more famous Arc de Triomphe in the Place de l'Étoile (now officially known as Place Charles de Gaulle).

left: Denise caught me gazing, dumbfounded, at da Vinci's "Virgin of the Rocks".
centre: Denise with one of her favourite paintings, "The Lacemaker" by Vermeer.
right: View of the hall where a number of da Vinci's paintings, including the 'Virgin of the Rocks', are on display. The room containing the Mona Lisa is ahead and to the right. .