No Ice cubes in France but They Got the Louvre

Sorry for the delay in the blog but we just returned from France and I’m still separating night from day.   France is a spectacular country, and the food is out of this world--sumptuous sauces, omelets, fish, and fabulous wine--they got everything there but an ice-chilled drink.  Even iced tea is served with plain water because they say the French freezers are tiny, and there's not much room for anything at all.  But I barely mentioned it--only a few times--because there's so much to do, particularly in Paris, and you can’t see the city without visiting the Louvre.   
The Louvre.

The Louvre

The place is massive with three buildings shaped in an open rectangle, each building extending one entire city block.  It is so packed with wonders that some say it takes a month to see it all.

Great.  We had just spent a few hours in the D’Orsay Museum wandering around the hundreds of impressionist paintings, but our guide said the Louvre was quite the opposite, a very stressful place to be.

We breezed through in twenty minutes. 

The Winged Victory

We didn’t mean to.   
We thought we were taking our time, but time is the thing with the Louvre.  It takes ages just to get inside.  From the Metro we crossed into this amazing garden that stretched many acres before crossing an endless footbridge and then hiked another half mile to the entrance. “We’re here,” I announced, and my husband grimaced.  This was an ordeal.  As we reached security, we unloaded our bags on the moving belt and then pushed ahead to the lobby—bigger than a football field.  We joined at least a thousand others trying to buy tickets as I mentally reviewed our list of things to see.   The Mona Lisa was on top, of course, followed by the statue of The Winged Victory, and Venus de Milo.  After those, who knew how much of the day we’d have left? 

Caught in the crowds, we steadily followed the posters of Mona Lisa’s face and an arrow pointing ahead.  As we reached her room, we looked up, and there stood the Winged Victory—the marble statue symbolizing victory for the goddess Nike!  Oh so that’s how Nike got its name...   Neat, I thought and crossed the Winged Victory off our list as we entered the room to view da Vinci’s genius. 

Yes, there she was—the Mona Lisa behind bullet-proof glass.  The painting was small but clear.  I stared. Was she smiling?  It sure looked like it to me.  An enigma, I finally decided, turning away and heading back to the hall before starting our search for Venus.  She wasn’t far away, just down a ways a bit, and in minutes we were staring at the armless statue we had seen in pictures all of our lives.  

Venus de Milo

 

“So we’re finished? I asked my husband, studying my watch.  “In twenty minutes!"  I couldn't believe  it.   "Then I just beat my mother’s record in the Smithsonian’s American History Museum.  That had taken a full half hour.”

Guilty that we should be seeing more, we found the crown jewels, admired the golden framed murals on the ceilings and walls, then left the museum, deciding that we wouldn’t tell a soul how quickly we succeeded.

Apollo Gallery with Crown Jewels

  And it’s a good thing we maintained our code of silence.  As we entered the hotel, we ran into two other women from our trip, who were also from Orlando, and who had used their precious hours visiting Euro-Disney. “Disneyland?” I asked in disbelief.  “When you live next door to Disneyworld?

 

“Well we saw the Louvre,” I announced, head held high and unmistakably proud.  “But Disney?” I asked again.  Americans, I almost muttered.  They don’t know culture when it smacks them in the face.