Outside the Orsay, which has lots
of Impressionist
paintings, of which Joni is a huge fan
Photography is not actually allowed
in the Orsay (shh! Don't tell anyone
we took these shots!), but it's
a markedly different story over at...
...the Louvre, with its way-cool
glass pyramids (including an inverted one)
One could easily spend a week inside
the Louvre, but we concentrated on a few
areas, such as the Renaissance paintings,
including, of course, the Mona Lisa
There are literally thousands of
paintings here, and we cherry-picked some to photograph,
such as the one of St.
Cecilia (with the cello) and da Vinci's Virgin
and Child with St. Anne
I was awestruck by John Martin's
Pandaemonium,
which depicts the capital of Hell
We found Jusepe
de Ribera's Boy
with a Club Foot, which is believed to be
a portrait of a boy with arthrogryposis,
the same condition that Ally-Jane has
Something you don't get from art
books and photographs on the Internet is how BIG a
lot of the paintings are. Some would
take up an entire wall of your typical house
After a while, the sheer quantity
of famous works kinds of makes you blase about what you're seeing.
"Oh, look, there's another Jacques-Louis
David." You don't even notice the gorgeous painted ceilings
Speaking of David, they have the
Coronation
of Napoleon there. It surprised me how much
the French still revere Nappy, who
was probably the 3rd
biggest douchebag in European history
Joni, a lifelong Byzantine
Catholic, was fond of the collection of Eastern
icons
Then it was off to see sculpture,
starting with Winged
Victory and the Venus
de Milo
We particularly enjoyed this hall
of Greek statuary
Joni found all the walking very,
VERY tiring (not really!)
Caryatid
columns, bathing beauties, and the Bacchae,
wine-crazed followers of Dionysus
Three goddesses meet three goddesses;
Having often carried Ally-Jane around,
I empathized with the centaur
Underneath the Louvre, you can see
part of its original stonework;
Who doesn't like menhirs,
I ask you? I think I need this one for the front yard
The Louvre has an extensive collection
of Egyptian artifacts
Beth shares the ancient Egyptian
fondness for cats
We ended our visit to the Louvre
with the Near
Eastern exhibits,
where I made like Cal
Worthington and his dog Spot
Next up: cathedrals!
More photos
of Paris
