The louvre

Why is it called the Louvre? Well in the days before a palace existed here, wolves inhabited the area, quite aggressively apparently. Wolf in French is loup, louvre roughly translates to place of the wolves. So the built a castle here where the remnants were discovered in the mid 1990's to protect themselves from the wolves. Have you ever noticed how many of the French kings had the name Louis? Very similar to Loup. I think they might have ended up housing the wolves inside the palace. They eventually worked things out, exterminated the wolves and became a republic. If you visit the Louvre, go on guided tour. Toni was lucky enough to book a tour a day before and it was well worth it. We avoided the queues but more importantly, got a history and art lesson as well. I can now tell the difference between Greek sculpture vs. Roman sculpture and pre renaissance art vs. renaissance art. Pity I don't have the money of the French monarchy to afford buying some. The Louvre while grand in my opinion is more subtle than Versailles, less ostentatious and therefore a better building overall. At any one time there is only about 8% of the collection on display and on a given day you can only effectively see about 3 of the 7-8 sections being displayed. About 1% of the entire collection. So the next time we visit there will be new things to see. We got right up to the Monash Lisa which is quite a feat as well as the Venus du Milo. Her real name is Aphrodite, she is actually a Greek sculpture not Roman. Previously in her place was a Roman sculpture, Venus du Milan. Napoleon who had very sticky fingers 'borrowed' it from Milan at one time. The French had to give it back to the Italians so when the found this one instead of Aphrodite do Milo, they used Venus du Milo because it was so similar to du Milan. All in all it is just about the best and most intestine art you will ever see and for us linked nicely with our trip to Jerusalem with all of the religious art on display.Read more