Museums

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Louvre
Ahhhh! As we stood in the main entry of the the Louvre I am sure that my mouth just hung open. It is a shock to the system to know that you are in one of the largest museums in the world. As we went up the escalator, I knew that we would see only a fraction of the whole. Of course this first visit needed to include the famous three women... Mona Lisa, Venus, and Winged Victory.

Yes, the Mona Lisa is smaller than I thought but it is beautiful. Venus is perfect and Winged Victory invokes the imagination of times of battles past. As we moved through the statues at the end of our visit, there were medallions from the Roman times. Gary found one that peaked his interest.

d'Orsay
As Rick Steves comments in his podcast on the d'Orsay, this museum is truly fantastic. The rooms move you through art in an easy to understand progress. Unfortunately, you can not take any photos (even without flash) inside the d'Orsay. As we have come to say, in "our minds eye". The statue area on the main floor is beautiful and the paintings in the rooms off the side show the progress and changes in art through the 18th and 19th century.

Versailles
While in Germany we saw Schloss Neuschwanstein, Mad Ludwig's Versailes knock-off. It is different in shape and has many unfinished rooms, but some of the rooms really do mimick Versailles. But Versailles is finished and very stately. The gold, the wall coverings and the paintings are lavish. The gardens of this palace are everything that movies azre made of. They are HUGE!

Currently, there is a modern art exhibit that is housed throughout the palace - a bit disconcerting to see this modern asian artist's work set amid the beauty of the old works.

The morning we were there, an "industrial action" (read that "national strike") was taking place. They finally opened about an hour late.

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Comments

[Deb & Terry]

HB
Happy Birthday MARY!!!

[paul lapage]

King Ludwig
I'm really enjoying your blogs. And I'm very glad you saw the Neuschwanstein Castle. The place is awesome. It was the early eighties when I saw it, but it left an everlasting impression. If Ludwig had not been murdered (for squandering tax money on fairytale castles) he would have finished the rooms. Little did the people back then know, he was planning ahead for the future tourism industry. And of course, you now know all this because you bin there and done that. Ausgezeichnet!!! Does Helga email you with thoughts?