Today we visited the Louvre – assisted by a useful tip, we brought our tickets at a machine nearby rather than queuing for hours in front of the pyramid. The place is amazing.
The Louvre has been the site of a palace for a long time – in fact the first one was built back in 1190. Since then the site has been rebuilt and remodelled into the buildings there today. Underneath the galleries are the foundations of these old palaces and we walked through an exhibition on the past buildings on the site which was nestled in the moat of the 12th century fortress.
Currently it’s built in three wings, facing onto the Grand Pyramid in the central square. I won’t ramble about the floor plan, but its huge (and not even all of it is in use for public access). You can see why the royalty of France was considered to live well.
The rooms are almost drowning in artwork, not to mention being covered in marble, frescoes, gilding, carving and decorative ironwork themselves. Simply fantastic.
One of the best parts – you can take photos!
Some of the things we saw below. I’m picking the better known ones here, with some random fun stuff thrown in, including the building.
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| 'Winged Victory' |
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| A less busy corridor |
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| French Crown Jewels |
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| Entrance Hall under Pyramid |
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| Ceiling under a stairwell |
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| Statues inside |
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| 'Mona Lisa' |
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| Ancient Monkeys! |
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| One of the painting galleries |
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| Ramsees II |
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| 'The Captive' |
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| 'Venus de Milo (Aphrodite)' |
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| Medieval Moat |
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