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lundi 10 mars 2003 |
margueritte leans on a bench beside the arc de triomphe du carousel, with the pyramid main entrance to the musee du louvre behind her.
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monday morning we began a pleasant paris routine. i got up early and went out for a fresh baguette. we packed my daypack with snacks and other supplies. we walked three blocks to the ecole militaire metro station, dropping postcards in the mail at the post office on rue cler. in the metro station the clerk spoke english, which helped us quickly purchase two museum passes, good for five days admission to most of the museums and monuments in and around paris. we stepped through the turnstile and went down to the train platform.
we changed trains at the concorde metro station, where a musician played in a rich sonic intersection of two corridors. riding away on line one, a trio of gypsy musicians were working the train cars, pausing to pass their hat for donations as the car pulled into a station, then quickly switching to another car at each stop. we rode to the louvre station, which leads straight into the mall beneath the huge museum.
we entered the teeming mall. glass walled high end shops reached up to tall ceilings. at the other end of the mall was a large plaza directly underneath the large glass pyramid in the courtyard of the louvre. it was gorgeous. we stood two stories below ground level in an open plaza with clear visibility through the glass pyramid along the ornate skyline of the palatial arms of the louvre buildings.
the louvre museum is so huge there are three entrances from the main entrance plaza, to the denon, richelieu or sully wings of the museum. we went in the sully section to start with the archaeology of the building itself. we walked along the bottom of the moat looking at the restored blocks from the original castle keep built during roman times. next we ascended into the main first floor of the museum and wandered through several halls of ancient greek statues and artifacts, including the venus of milo.
we migrated through etruscan and roman antiquities, and passing a grand gallery with winged victory of samothrace we entered into the denon wing of the museum. we saw huge paintings from italian and french masters, including delacroix's liberty leading the people. we ate lunch in a small cafe on the second floor.
the museum bustled with activity. numerous artists scattered about the galleries were painting replicas. crowds of schoolchildren were listening to teachers, and tour guides walked through leading groups in numerous languages. it was an inspiring place to be, watching the waves of people from countries and cultures all over the world.