Le Louvre & L'Arc de Triomphe

We were fortunate to have had another great day today.  I did sneak out a bit earlier than the rest of the crew, walked about 20 minutes to the museum and had about three hours of adult time-out in the Louvre.  It absolutely wore me out.  Why is sauntering through a museum and looking at inanimate old objects so exhausting?  Reportedly the largest in the world, the museum is enormous and only about a third of it is in the photo above.  I rented a portable AV media guide and enjoyed learning plenty of interesting anecdotes and niblets of art and Louvre history, most of which has already exited my head.  I met Erica and the kids for lunch in the Tuileries garden and we all went back in together.  The kids enjoyed the fact that you have to enter through the pyramid and then can explore from there.

The Louvre provides stark contrast when compared to the Beaubourg we visited a few days ago.  The classics are showcased at this former palace.  We ogled the Mona Lisa as closely as can be done behind bulletproof glass and what seemed like ten thousand tour groups.  On the left, above, is the lovely Venus de Milo (or Aphrodite) to the Greeks.  We did see a crack in the sculpture from this vantage.  It's pretty close to the center of the shot.  Her many admirers are also obvious in the gallery.  The kids actually were quite interested in how one could sculpt such a hard material so finely.  Very impressive to me as well.  Will our generations produce such timeless works of beauty?  I love the sculpture on the right, above because it so simply exemplifies how we parents feel sometimes.  All told, I think I made it through about 1/3 to 1/2 of the museum today.

Sully at the entrance to the wing named in his honor.  

Yes, the folks in the foreground are sound asleep, in the middle of the Grand Gallerie.  Did I mention that seeing the Louvre is exhausting?

Here's a 16th century painting by Pannini, an Italian who painted at least a couple of mind-blowing paintings of artists, paintings and sculptures.  The details were absolutely unbelievable.  Unfortunately, by this time, our troops were beginning to fade and weren't nearly as impressed.  No lives were changed by seeing this masterpiece. 

I believe this is Hercules and his son.  I think the resemblance is striking.  Only we don't have the deer.

Would anyone have guessed more ice cream?  We walked to the Place de l'Opera and Erica found that going inside to see the innards was more effort than she was willing to expend.  So we walked down into the Metro.  On the platform, some friendly French men moved down on a bench so we could sit.  I thanked them and Henry decided to sit down on the floor of the platform on protest of his brother committing the crime of stealing his seat.  The men mentioned to me that he might not want to sit there because it was so dirty.  I explained to them that he was.  .  . (then found tetu or obstine = stubborn) in my pocket dictionary.  They laughed and the train arrived.

A quick trip to the Arc de Triomphe, sitting in the middle of Place Charles de Gaulle or L'Etoile (the star), where no less than 12 streets (the most famous of which is the Champs Elysees) come together in a big traffic circle.  The traffic is crazy and fittingly there was an accident being cleaned up when we arrived.  I was eager to see the ambulance but couldn't get a great look.  The Arc de Triomphe was built by Napoleon as a war monument, houses an eternal flame and France's version of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, buried after WWI.  A fixture on the skyline, it provides a great view in 360 degrees.

We took the metro home, Erica filled our bellies with curry chicken crepes again.  Popular to all.  Sully was pretty tired, became out of control and had his ice cream privileges for tomorrow revoked.  Then quickly to sleep.  M & H have been very busy reading Harry Potter III and Garfield comics (respectively) again.  Plans for tomorrow not yet hammered out.  Looking forward to resting the weary legs.

One final note:  apologies to anyone who picks up on the lack of appropriate accents on some of the French words (Margie?).  Can't get them to work reliably.  .  .