For Art Lovers

The one and only Mona Lisa. Interestingly she didn't become really famous until about 100 years ago. The story is fascinating and involves an artist known for not finishing his works, a commom lady, a "love affair" with Napolean and a theft from the Lourve which really brought this painting into the paparazzi's spotlight.
I really wanted to see a Degas. Princess Poodle loves his work of the ballet dancers but the only one we found was of a nude woman. I still showed it to her and she can't believe we saw an orginal Degas.
Now I loved this one. I had seen alot of Monets in art books but this winter scene I love more than his water lillies. Its very moody in person.
This is the ceiling of one corridor in the Louvre. Unbelievable in person. Inside this corridor sit two coronation crowns of Louis the something. Jewels are so big they look fake. I think I could make a pretty good replica by going to Claire's and getting a hot glue gun.

Here is the Wedding Feast at Cana. The size of this painting is in itself amazing. Many of the paintings are wall size and you wonder how they got them here.

To enter the musuem you go through the famous glass pyramid. I get it..something old recreated to look modern. You have to pass through this blend of the old and new to enter the museum. The musuem itself is huge. We spent 3 1/2 hours in there and didn't see everything. It wasn't crowded that day. The tour de France was ending in Paris that day and many people had flocked to that event. I was surprised by how close we were able to get to these famous paintings. Security must be all behind the scenes because it wasn't really present in the musuem except for a few people here and there keeping a close eye on kids. I really enjoyed the section of the musuem dedicated to ancient aritifacts. Eygyptian statues, Athenian pottery, Hammarabi's Code, real hieroglyphics...wow. And I found it interesting that paintings that moved me most or caught my attention were pieces of obscurity that I had never heard of before. Steven and I are not very artistic people and yet we both enjoyed our time there except for the thousands of stairs you take which took a toll on my legs and his knees!!

Soon to come: Notre Dame, The Church of our Lady, some comments on Bruge, Greek Alley, and more.