The Musee du Louvre - June 2



Inside the pyramid entrance
looking out

 On arrival we entered through the glass pyramid in the center of the courtyard.  This view is looking back up through the ground level pyramidal entrance.  In the background, you can see one of the Louvre's three wings -- it's either the Sully, Richelieu, or the Denon.  Each wing has four levels with seven departments, so tomorrow, day 3, we plan to see each and every one of the 35,000 pieces of art.


Did the first pyramid just collapse?



Architect Ieoh Ming Pei  designed the large, glass, ground level, pyramid entrance that caused so much hullabaloo when it was built in '89.   When you go underground, you see it has a counterpart amongst dozens of shops and a food court.






Under the Louvre
(sounds like a boardwalk song)

  By the time we arose on the second day, had breakfast at a sidewalk cafe, walked to and around the Eiffel Tower and then walked the Seine to the Louvre, we were somewhat spent, so we entered its cool, marble, underground to sit and have a cool drink, when we noticed these two scrolls of upcoming exhibitions. 

Handsome, young celebrity???
on the left

Underground, we visited the shops, ate, and drank then drank some more (it was a hot day).  By the time we were ready to visit the wings, it was late, we were tired, and it was miles to go.
We decided to leisurely stroll the distance home, so we exited the way we came in.  We saw this celebrity in front of the calves' livers sculpture and snapped his picture.




 

A wing entrance

Outside the entrance you get a taste of the Renaissance architecture that began as a 12th century hunting lodge.







The Louvre's courtyard

 Walking farther away you get more comprehensive view of the horseshoe that is the three winged Louvre




Louvre courtyard from
 a city block away

 From an even greater distance, you can see that each wing is over a city block long and three stories tall; it is breathtakingly beautiful, not to mention that the Louvre's collection began with twelve stolen Italian works of art, including Leonardo da Vinci's iconic Mona Lisa -- who says crime doesn't pay.







Monument to Napoleon

 Turning away from the Louvre we walked back toward our hotel on another esplanade that continued for a couple miles.  The first stop on the walk is a miniature Arc de Triomphe dedicated to Napoleon.  My guess is that he planned this one before his ego took over  and he planned the famous monument to his military prowess, the Arc de Triomphe at the head of Avenue des Champs-Elysees.  



A tree hedge

 A unique and interesting landscape technique caught my eye.  The French plant trees close enough that they will grow together, then prune secondaries to start at 10' off the ground, followed by pruning like a hedge.  The result can be seen at the right




Hercules, what a guy!

 Statuary is everywhere; however, had Hercules shown up in this park dressed like this, well...







A city pool just for relaxation

 Just prior to walking out the gates to this esplanade, we came to a small pool that attracts many locals.  The pool was no more than a city block across.











  All the esplanades are tree filled with benches everywhere and restaurants in and among the trees, not quite as charming as the huge emphasis on public landscaping in  Santa Maria, but magical and pleasing none the less.

Still on the way back to the hotel we noticed that the statuary was never small or...

  
simple... 






 I don't know the details; however, this statue states that is was donated by American elementary school children.






Hollywood still loves Paris

 

Getting closer to our hotel, we came across a working movie set.

It was almost 2100 when we finally arrived back at our hotel.  Our shoes were smoking from all the walking so we decided to eat in the hotel restaurant rather than venture out for another dinner on the town.  And, what a dinner it was especially Carol's vegetarian lasagna; Carol couldn't eat the last portion of her meal so Ralph pitched in and cleaned up her plate, which leads us into day 3.  The itinerary for day three was to return to the Louvre and see all the famous art work we could take in in one day.