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Place du Palais Royal

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    • Bella Italia 2018
      Day 5

      The Louvre, Paris

      September 3, 2018 in France ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

      Today was one of the days I was really looking forward to, although I don’t think my feet were - it was going to be another big one. First up for the day was a visit to the famous Louvre Museum. We had heard so much about the line-ups for the Louvre, even with prepaid tickets, that we made sure we were there bright and early. We were so early in fact, that there was only one other person there when we arrived, and funnily enough, he was from Sydney. It was great to be able to photograph and admire the Louvre without the thousands of tourists surrounding it and we enjoyed chatting to other people in line while we waited. It made the waiting time go quickly.

      It wasn't until we were in the Louvre that I realised how huge the actual museum was. The origin of the Louvre dates back to the 1200s and the buildings are just as impressive as the art on display. Once a royal residence, it became a museum in 1793 during the French Revolution and is now home to artworks dating from the 7th millennium BC to the 1850s. The collections are displayed on five levels, in three interconnecting wings and it was very easy to get lost.

      First stop was of course to see the most famous of all art, Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. And she did not disappoint. The Mona Lisa has been described as "the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world". It is also one of the most valuable paintings in the world. It holds the Guinness World Record for the highest known insurance valuation in history at $100 million in 1962, which is worth nearly $800 million in 2017. Once again, we were very lucky with regards to the crowds and didn't have to line up to see the painting up close.

      Next stop was the famous statue, La Venus de Milo. Discovered in April 1820 on the island of Melos in the Cyclades (Greece), the statue is believed to depict Aphrodite, goddess of Love, known to the Romans as Venus. This masterpiece of Greek marble sculpture, whose sculptor is unknown, is dated from about 120 BC. It is so hard to fathom that works of art from so long ago are still around today for us to admire.

      After visiting the main iconic pieces of art, we enjoyed some time wandering through the Louvre and admiring the many other masterpieces on display. There were quite a few random pieces that I really liked, that took me back to my high school art classes. I think the Louvre is one of those places you could visit every time you go to Paris and you will always discover something you haven’t seen before. It was an amazing way to start the day.      Read more

    • TravelerMy Big OE
      Day 20

      Floating down the Seine

      April 14, 2017 in France ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

      Taking a cruise down the Seine is another of the many "must do" things on a Paris visit. I went at 7.30pm at night, hoping to catch the sunset. The river is filled with other boats all doing the same thing, rush hour on the Seine!

      The other thing you see all along the banks, is groups of friends and couples sharing food and wine as they sit on the banks. It was noticeable that their alcohol laws are very different from ours with some large groups partying around a pile of beer and wine.

      It is a great way to get a glimpse of many of the iconic buildings and also a sense of Paris culture. At one spot of the river there is three little stages where people come to dance the salsa.      Read more

    • Shannon MabryEuropean Extravaganza
      Day 13

      The Louvre!

      June 1, 2015 in France ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

      So today we went to the world famous Louvre museum! It was INSANELY big! So many cool things to look at and to enjoy, paintings and sculptures and old pieces from many eras ago in France and other countries! It was definitely an amazing experience that I'm so happy I got to do!Read more

    • Jessica GerschwitzEurope
      Day 16

      The Louvre

      May 25, 2015 in France ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

      The Louvre is one of the world's largest museums and a historic monument in Paris, France. A central landmark of the city, nearly 35,000 objects from prehistory to the 21st century are exhibited over an area of 60,600 square metres (652,300 square feet). The Louvre is the world's most visited museum, and received more than 9.7 million visitors in 2012.
      Inside The Louvre I got to see The Mona Lisa in person, she was beautiful.      Read more

    • Globe TrotterEurope 2016 - The 3rd Time
      Day 5

      The Louvre!

      June 29, 2016 in France ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

      My GoPro captured some amazing photos of us at The Louvre! I did not enter this time around, but normally it cost €15 for entry.
      Plus, there was free WIFI and so that kept me entertained while I waited outside the museum!Read more

    • Daniel EastwoodIsrael and Europe
      Day 13

      The louvre

      July 8, 2017 in France ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C

      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

    • TravelerParis
      Day 14

      Louvre Paris

      November 15, 2017 in France ⋅ ☁️ 7 °C

      Finally! We found Point Zero! We've been in this area for days already and have walked past many times...but today, we found it! We knew it was around, and as we were looking we noticed a tour group standing in a circle nearby...so we peeked in...and voila! There it was. The famous Point Zero...the centre of Paris...right in front of the Notre Dame Cathedral! We must've walked past it 20 times already!

      We spent most of the day exploring as we slowly made our way over to the Louvre. We stopped at the famous Berthillon for ice cream....trying a lime basil flavour...and chocolate of course for Morgan! (We much prefer both the ice cream and the service at Amorino). We tried to stop at the Sainte-Chapelle cathedral on our way, but were too late for entry. They close early.

      We carried on to the Louvre. It's beautiful here! I know, it's a little crazy, but we didn't really have any interest to go inside the Louvre....instead just explored the outside. It was great. I couldn't imagine taking the kids inside...I don't think it would be very enjoyable trying to keep them quiet and chasing them around. I like to use them as an excuse, but really, the thought of spending all that money to look at art history that I don't know anything about...sounds...well...to be honest...quite boring to me. But exploring the outside was great! There was a wedding model shoot going on. It was pretty cool to watch. There were street musicians playing "Let it Go" on violins....amazingly beautiful. The girls had to dance to it of course! They had a great time interacting with the musicians.

      After the Louvre, we started randomly walking...the best way to explore! We found a fun wooden foot bridge to cross the river, and just as we were crossing, the Eiffel Tower starting sparkling in the night sky! It was SO beautiful! I'm not sure if it twinkles every night, maybe at a certain time, but that was the only time we saw it sparkling! So lucky to have seen it.

      We knew we were heading in the right direction to eventually get back to the hotel, but we didn't realize we had walked past our hotel somehow! We ended up at the Odeon Theatre....Luxembourg Gardens....yikes! That's quite the trek! There was a very happy ending to this excursion!! We stumbled upon a Lebanese street food restaurant (Chez Le Libanais) and had the most delicious shawarma wrap....it was so good, that Jay even ran out again after the girls were in bed to get us some more!! A delicious end to a fun day!      Read more

    • NZtoWhereverAdventure Time
      Day 36

      The Louvre

      October 9, 2017 in France ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

      Croissants and coffee for breakfast. Yum. Half hour walk to the Louvre and then saw the massive line. So bought tickets online to save heaps of time for about 4 dollars extra (yay for smart phone and data - 1.25GB per month working out so far).

      Then skipped the queue and we were in. Went in the secondary entrance which was a happy mistake as saw sculptures and paintings without huge crowds who go in directly to see Mona Lisa.

      Saw some Northern European painters and quite liked some. Balthasar Denner and someone else did these super lifelike portraits (almost like photos) - very cool. Lots of sculptures - really interesting.

      Then moved through other parts of the museum which weren't as captivating. Lots of Egyptian stuff (yeah, mostly stolen probably). Some interesting art objects and other random things. They had some good placards in multilevel languages that were really useful - learnt about a series of old tapestries (or old copies of them) about Scipio and his defeat of Hannibal and life etc. Cool.

      Got lost a little but eventually made our way to the obligatory Mona Lisa visit (were almost going to buck the trend and not see it at all). But never fear, we saw the mass of people shuffling in to see it. As expected and forewarned, we were suitably underwhelmed.

      After that, stomachs rumbling we moved off through the Jardín des Tulieres (cursing ourselves for forgetting our sunglasses - the sun was blazing), and then strolled to Latin Quarter to find lunch.

      Overall impression of the Louvre? Great. Worth exploring off the beaten track - more enjoyable crowd wise and you see some gems. Didn't see the need for audioguides - lots in English and our basic French reading helped in other parts. Beautiful building - at times it outdid the artworks and artefacts on display.      Read more

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    Place du Palais Royal

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