This morning, we were in a huge hurry to catch a bus to the Eiffel Tower. But the skies were gloomy and we quickly decided to instead go to the Louvre. It was still adequately early so we should get in without a problem. As it turned out, there was a hundred-metre long line, but it moved quickly and getting in wasn't hard. We went through security, bought tickets, locked up our hot clothes, got our tickets scanned, and just as we were about to go through the arch, the security barrier closed with a boom. We asked the lady who had scanned our ticket, but she didn't know either. She told us to try the other two entries, but both were similarly closed. Then the sirens went off and the loudspeakers started: "Please leave the Louvre in an orderly fashion through the nearest exit". This repeated over and over. So, us being normal people, we followed the instructions, got our clothes, and exited up the spiral staircase where the nearest exit was. We were just about to go through the doors when the security guard stopped us. He grabbed Mum and said to her, "Stay here! Our sensors are easily triggered, this happens all the time." Then he pointed his arm. "See the end of the line way, way, over there? If you go out that door, you'll have to go right back to there." So we cautiously went back inside and it cleared up within minutes.We went in, and rushed straight to the Mona Lisa. The Mona Lisa is the only artwork in the entire Louvre (indeed, in all the museums I've seen so far) that has a waiting line. Not only that, but the line is at least 50 metres of compressed meat. The Mona herself is actually quite disappointing: the dimensions are, at most, 1m x 0.6m. We also looked at the statue of Venus of Milo, another artwork with nothing special about it. Venus is meant to represent the idealised form of the body, since she is the goddess of love and beauty, but she's missing both arms, so she's hardly got the perfect body. We also saw the trenches of the original Louvre, which was a traditional castle from the 10-1100's. This was then pulled down and replaced by roughly the Louvre we see today, although ti has been added on to and extended many times. After seeing this, we headed to the cafe, but on the way, we went through the Egyptian. They had 62 sarcophagi (although some were missing either lid or base), and one mummy that was unlabelled so we don't know who it was. They also had lots of little statuettes and tokens. The path to the cafe also took us past the showcases of what the Louvre actually looked like when it was still a king's palace. It was ridiculous: there was velvet everywhere, and the museum had dedicated an entire room to a display of snuff boxes that the king and other royal family members had owned. Each had at least 10 jewels and 30 grams of gold (by my estimation).
When we did finally get to the cafe, it was really full, so we decided to just go back to the entry hall where the were cafes. We could then go back in, for our tickets let us in 3 times (although we had already used two due to the false alarm). As it turned out, we only went in again for a very short time, to see a newly built garden of statues.
After exiting, we wandered around for a bit, looking for a nice cafe to have afternoon tea. On the way, though, we got sidetracked for about half an hour because of a group of inline skaters who were publicly practising their skills on an open square. They all had lines of cones, and going at extremely high speeds, they would wave their way around them to the end of the line. Sometimes they even did this on one foot. I suspect the square was actually meant for this very purpose, because the were lines of dots on the ground, spaced exactly as far apart as the cones. There were probably even more dots, right under the cones.
Eventually we left the skaters and found a nice cafe in le Marais, the Jewish quarter of Paris. The hot chocolate was so good: the cafe gave us a mug, a cup of melted dark chocolate, a pitcher of hot milk, and a cup of cream with a raspberry on top, and let us mix it ourselves. It was the best hot chocolate I've ever had!
P.S. Upon further research I found out that the actual dimensions of the Mona Lisa are even smaller than I thought: 77cm x 53cm.
When we did finally get to the cafe, it was really full, so we decided to just go back to the entry hall where the were cafes. We could then go back in, for our tickets let us in 3 times (although we had already used two due to the false alarm). As it turned out, we only went in again for a very short time, to see a newly built garden of statues.
After exiting, we wandered around for a bit, looking for a nice cafe to have afternoon tea. On the way, though, we got sidetracked for about half an hour because of a group of inline skaters who were publicly practising their skills on an open square. They all had lines of cones, and going at extremely high speeds, they would wave their way around them to the end of the line. Sometimes they even did this on one foot. I suspect the square was actually meant for this very purpose, because the were lines of dots on the ground, spaced exactly as far apart as the cones. There were probably even more dots, right under the cones.
Eventually we left the skaters and found a nice cafe in le Marais, the Jewish quarter of Paris. The hot chocolate was so good: the cafe gave us a mug, a cup of melted dark chocolate, a pitcher of hot milk, and a cup of cream with a raspberry on top, and let us mix it ourselves. It was the best hot chocolate I've ever had!
P.S. Upon further research I found out that the actual dimensions of the Mona Lisa are even smaller than I thought: 77cm x 53cm.
Comments
Post a Comment