27 January 2003

The Louvre

When I was a kid I dreamed about visiting places that I read about in THE WEEKLY READER.  I loved reading about the Blarney Stone or the Mona Lisa painting in Paris.

The first time I tried to visit the famous Louvre (Loo v) Museum in Paris, our little one was four years old.  The entrance line was endless.  Cat and I decided instead to go back to look in all ten of the pet shops we had passed on our walk along the Seine River from Notre Dame to the museum.  Seeing Paris through the eyes of a four year old is fun, and the pet shops held the wonders of a land filled with puppies, kittens, mice, birds, baby pigs, chickens and goats.

This year I finally got my wish.  We took the RER train from Survillier (sir vee ay) to Paris.  We went at the height of tourist season so the streets were crowded. 

We ate a leisurely lunch in a café near the museum so that we would arrive after 3 PM, which would mean there would be fewer people in line.  In the café we heard Dutch, German, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, and other languages I didn’t recognize.  When our waiter realized we spoke some French and actually had a French credit card he was suddenly friendly.

After lunch we took the short walk to the Louvre courtyard where there are three glass pyramids.  The largest one is the entrance to the museum.  They look really weird next to the architecture of Louis XIV’s palace.  Jay loves to complain about how horrible those modern things look in the middle of such splendor.  

The entrance line moved quickly down a series of escalators into the belly of the museum.  One adult ticket is $7.50.  Children are free.  Off we went to see the Egyptian exhibit because Cat has loved mummies and artifacts from Egypt ever since she was old enough to travel to museums.

Everything was jammed packed with people.  I didn’t care.  All I wanted was to drink in every single one of those antiques.

Many of the rooms had magnificent ceilings made up of carvings and paintings so elaborate all I could think of was how many people starved during the time that Louis XIV built the palace.  Jay pointed out that all those starving people are the reason poor Louie was killed.  Louie’s extravagant behavior brought on the French revolution, and the rest, as they say is history.

Another thing that struck me is how un-commercial the Louvre seems to be.  In America we have shops and places to eat in our museums.  Not the French:  the reason to be there is the art and the antiques and you are there to look at it.  No distractions allowed.

I really enjoyed the Egyptian exhibit because it satisfied my longing to see so many ancient things.  The crowns of royalty were all located in a huge glass box.  One crown was made with pearls the size of stones in our lane in Philo

Before we left we wanted to see Leonardo DiVinci’s painting of Mona Lisa.  So off we headed to the very furthest possible point in the museum.

I felt like we were in a sea of fish swimming along because it was so crowded.  We tried to look at the magnificent paintings that lined the hallway along the route to the Mona Lisa room, but people were in a hurry.  I kept thinking that I wanted to actually study the paintings on either side of us, but the man behind me was bumping me with his belly to push me along.  His pushing was really irritating but being the polite American, representing all Americans, I kept moving.

I was amazed at how enormous paintings can be and still be in a frame.  I’ve lived in houses smaller then some of those paintings.  How did they lift the whole thing up to hang it on the wall?  I guess you have to work in a museum to know those secrets.

After looking at thousands of Egyptian, French, Spanish and Italian items (not an American thing in the joint) we were exhausted.  We didn’t see everything.  I was not disappointed though. 

At one of the exits I sat down on a hard marble bench to wait on Jay because he was talking on his mobile phone.  I promptly fell asleep in the Louvre in the middle of a crowd.  How many people can say they took a nap at the Louvre?  What a life!