Wanderlust at the Louvre

One of the things I love best about DC is that the vast majority of monuments and museums are free. Wanna see the Declaration of Independence at the Archives? Free. Hang out on top of the Lincoln? Free. Visit any one of the many Smithsonians (including the National Zoo)? ALL. FREE. I didn't realize how spoiled that made me until I got to Paris. Wanna go to the top of the Eiffel Tower? Or the Arc de Triomphe? Wanna see "The Thinker" at the Musee Rodin? Or the Mona Lisa? Or the inside of just about any other museum or touristy attraction in Paris? Pay up, sucka.

Fortunately, there are ways around this. Since I am a student, I can get discounts on my tickets into a lot of things (like the Opera Garnier, which I'll post about in the next couple of days). And since I'm taking an art history class while here at AUP, I get issued a special card by the university that says that I am an "Etudiante en histoire de l'art" (a student of art history). This entitles me to get into any national museum in Paris at any time FOR FREE. The perks of being a history nerd...

I didn't get my card until last week, but my first visit to the Louvre was about a week and a half ago. Luckily, people under 25 get in for free to the Louvre every Friday night from 6pm until the museum closes at 9:45pm, and that's regardless of nationality. (The catch with a lot of places who let under 25s in for free at any time is that you have to be an EU national.)

I met up with a couple of friends there, and we hiked all the way up to the top floor (there are three floors above ground and one and a half underground, which will make sense by the end of this post), deciding to start at the top and work our way down. The top floor is a lot of paintings from Flanders, France, and the Netherlands. Nothing all that famous up here, except for Peter Paul Reubens' MEdici cycle, a collection of over two dozen giant paintings done for Marie di' Medici (wife of King Henry IV of Spain) that occupies its own room.

Nevertheless, I forced myself to limit my picture taking to only those works that really caught my eye, otherwise I'd wind up taking pictures of everything and truly appreciating none of it. Some things of interest while wandering around the top floor:

I really liked this painting because it's unfinished. All of the horses and soldiers in the foreground are just sketched lines. I think it's really quite interesting to see a bit of how the artist planned on painting a scene, because most of the time when I look at a piece of art it just blows my mind to try and imagine how someone could have created it.

These panels are just pretty. And tall. Probably at least twice my height.

Look at the level of detail in this painting...

Now look at how small it is!

The MEdici cycle of paintings I mentioned earlier. I could spend an hour in this room alone.

The view out over the pyramid from the top floor.

I also did a very touristy thing and took a picture of the benches they have here. I just think they're cool!

I then ventured down to the first floor to do some rather rapid wandering for an hour or so. This floor is where a lot of the most famous items in the Louvre reside. Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People, Jacques-Louis David's The Coronation of Napoleon, and, of course, the most famous piece of all:

Now, what I'd always heard about seeing the actual Mona Lisa in person was that a lot of people are disappointed by it. And I can see why they might be. It's not a very big, and is set into its own wall behind glass in the middle of a large room, which draws even more attention to how small it is. It's also got a rope in front of it, preventing people from getting within about ten or fifteen feet of it. I can understand how some may be underwhelmed by it.

But for some reason, I wasn't. The awe of being in the presence of one of the most famous--if not THE most famous--single work of art in the world, to actually see it for real, greatly overshadowed any sense of "That's it? That small little painting?" It was incredible.

My wanderings the rest of the evening yielded a couple more photos, the choicest ones include: 

The other very very VERY famous work of art in this museum: the Venus de Milo.

The Winged Victory of Samothrace, which wins the contest for "Most Badass Name for a Work of Art in the Louvre".

The Louvre used to be a palace of the French royal family (before Louis XIV moved the court to Versailles), and signs of that era of elegance and wealth are everywhere, especially in the decorated ceilings.

Athena Pallas of Velletri

One of many, many rooms of ancient sculpture. It was so cool to be wandering around as the sun was setting, so by the time we left around 9:30 or so it was completely dark and all of the statues were lit up.

All the way under the Louvre, on the bottom floor (that does not extend as far to go all the way underneath the long parallel arms of the aboveground part of the Louvre), you can see some of the original foundations of the building known as the "Old Louvre." This was a 12th-century fortress that was destroyed in the mid-1500s to make way for the beginnings of the present palace. It's kind of creepy in parts, actually. And this is a horrible picture, I know, but it's the only one I took at the time and I didn't realize it was so blurry until I uploaded it. So I will take some more the next time I go, promise!

The view underneath the famous pyramid.

The inverted pyramid.

A Random Plethora of Pictures!

In my first week or two in Paris, I went on a couple of little outings, mostly organized by AUP, that don't really need their own individual posts, but did get me a nice collection of pictures that I'd like to share.

First of all, a pic of my bed back at the FIAP hostel before I got my apartment. I meant to put this back on my post regarding said apartment, but forgot as this was in a separate photo folder on my computer. But just so that you can contrast with what I have now, this was my home for my first four days in Paris (in a big room I shared with SIX other girls):

The day after I arrived in Paris, the AUP Student Advisors, who were each assigned a small group of us newbies, took their respective groups out to dinner. Mine teamed up with a few other advisors and their groups and we all went out to the Champs de Mars (the big grassy area in front of the Eiffel Tower). We got crepes from a vendor nearby and ate on the lawn and watched the sun set:

The following weekend AUP put together a handful of other activities designed to get us out into the city and learn about the different areas. I went on a bus tour that went around to all of Paris' major sights (but didn't take any pictures because I plan on visiting all of those major sights for real and nobody wants to see pictures taken through the window of a moving bus). BUT right before the end, the bus did stop and let us off for about ten minutes at Trocadero, the spot right across the Seine behind the Eiffel Tower:

A bunch of us also went on a walking tour of Montmartre, the very hilly neighborhood whose edge is only about a seven minute walk from my apartment. Features of Montmartre include:

The Moulin Rouge, which is trashy and full of tourists and VERY overpriced.

Killer views like this (but look at how steep the street is that I had to hike up to get to this view!)

This statue, called Le Passe-Muraille, based on Marcel Aymé's story of the same name about a man who suddenly woke up with the ability to walk through walls (it's a neat little story, Google it!). 

The most famous part of Montmartre: Sacre-Coeur!

View from the top of the steps. Watch out for pickpockets, gypsies, homeless people, and men trying to sell you beer, water, souvenirs, etc.

The rest of these pictures are all from the last AUP outing before classes started: an evening cruise on the river with Bateau Mouches, the most famous river cruise company in Paris. Their boats are ENORMOUS, with the biggest (like that we were on) having seating for 1000 people. It took us up and down the Seine around Ile St. Louis and back:

Pont Alexandre III, one of the most famous (and certainly the most beautiful) bridges in Paris.

Musee D'Orsay.

Notre Dame!

Sunset on the way back.

Sara and me (looking a bit like a unicorn!)

A very good shot, if I do say so myself.

Aux Champs-Elysees

Last weekend my friend Sara and I spent a day walking up and down the Champs-Elysees eyeing all of the famous shops and restaurants. Most of it was just wishful thinking and window shopping, but hey, there's an H&M there too!

In the middle of our exhausting shopping spree we did the touristy thing and stopped by the absolutely GIANT two-story McDonald's for lunch to refuel. Full disclosure: I wanted to make sure I ate at a McDonald's while in France (even though it's obviously something I could get on just about any corner at home) just to order a Royale with cheese because of Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction.

Folks, this is a big deal. I used to eat at McDonald's fairly often all the way up through about the 9th grade, by which point my mother had gotten food poisoning TWICE from their cheeseburgers. So I swore off McDonald's burgers, and in fact almost off McDonald's entirely. This was easily my first MickeyD's cheeseburger in about six or seven years.

And yes, I was "that person" who took a picture of her food. Just be happy I didn't Instagram this stuff, okay?

I can hardly contain my excitement...

It was just as disgusting and delicious as I remembered it. Seriously, it was pretty gross. But that doesn't mean that I didn't eat every last bite. Fun facts about McDonald's in France: the straws are bendy, and they put this funky sauce on their burgers, like a combo of dijon and honey mustard. Which was tasty...but would be better suited for dipping my fries than topping my burger.

Sara and I of course made a point of stopping by the Disney store:

Also I just realized this makes it looks like Spider-man is ALL up in my business. Awkward...

When we reached the end of the street we went through the underground passageway to get right up close to the Arc de Triomphe (although we didn't go inside and up to the top because you have to pay. Although I will do that at some point). 

(Told you there was an H&M...)

The view down the Champs-Elysees. Place de la Concorde is waaaayyyy in the distance.

After that we made our way down the opposite side of the street. We really wanted to go into the Louis Vuitton store, just to look around since obviously if I wanted to buy anything I'd have to blow my whole budget for the semester, but we realized that THERE WAS A LINE TO GET IN. LITERALLY A VELVET ROPELINE TO GET INTO THE LOUIS VUITTON STORE. The store didn't even have that many people in it; they were just being super snooty about how many people they let in at a time. So Sara and I decided we weren't going to stand for such snobbery, and just took pictures of the cool window display instead:

There are also a number of car showrooms on the Champs-Elysees. After our disappointing encounter with the Louis Vuitton store, Sara and I wandered into the Toyota showroom. It was pretty neat, especially when we went upstairs and they had this uber-futuristic concept car up there:

This is a car. Not the driver's seat of a car removed from the rest of the vehicle, this is the WHOLE CAR.

Like cross between a droid soldier from Attack of the Clones and Dr. Evil's loveseat...

Me in a Smartcar! Roomier than I thought it was going to be.

Super cool future car that I was unfortunately NOT allowed to get into...

Wandering further down the street we came across the three-story Haagen-Dazs and, well, how could we not stop in? We just got our stuff to go, but actually what we should have done was go up to the second or third floors, which is all  a sit-down restaurant (but of course the only thing on the menu is ice cream). Oh well, guess I will just have to go back at some point...

A good end to a good day. :)