I was suppose to have plans with a friend to go to lunch and the The Louvre today, but plans fell through so I decided to make the trip on my own. I got there and immediately regretted the decision. It absolutely slipped my mind that today was the first Sunday of December, and the city offers free admission to anybody and everybody on the first Sunday of each month for museums. Check out this line...
I don't know if you can see but it wraps all the way around the fountains to the entrance of the pyramid. Luckily, this wasn't the ticket line, just security so it moved fairly fast. Only took about 20 minutes to get in. I can't imagine how slow it would be if all those people were trying to buy tickets too!!
One of the main reasons I went today was to purchase my year pass/card. Alex had suggested it to me a while back, I checked it out online and felt it would be worth it! It was only 15 euros and I imagine I'll be back many more times. I will also be able to use a different entrance so I don't have to wait in the regular line, small discounts within the museum, and access to weekly "happenings" at The Louvre. I felt so official!
There are 35,000 works of art in The Louvre and I probably only saw about 1/5th of them today. I did make it a point to see the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. The Mona Lisa had about 200 people surrounding it. Once I got to a spot where I could attempt to take a picture, I was amazed at actually how small it was. Most of the other works are much larger on the walls, and the Mona Lisa (La Joconde) is much like something you would have on the walls in your house. It was pretty incredible to see though. So much history... There was a glass case over it, so between that, no flash, and the 200 people pushing and shoving you in 10 different languages it was hard to take a picture with my camera...but here's the best I got!
I just sort of wandered around this specific wing of the museum...the Italian and Spanish paintings and the Greek sculptures. Everything was so magnificent. In the end I am glad I went on my own, because I prefer to wander at my own pace and I could stand and stare as long as I wanted.
Here are a few pictures from the day. I wish they were clearer here, but they are better on my facebook!
When I went back outside it was rainy, cold, and dark! Not a good combination. I came back home and went to the nearest fnac to buy my French book for school in January. I also found...this! All of you know that I am still a dorky One Tree Hill fan and in France it is called Les Freres Scott. How funny!
Making some hot tea and going to watch Love Actually tonight...en francais! Gaspard is at home this week and very excited to see him tomorrow!
We had very little time in Paris, but we all wanted to see "Mona" so I'm sure you saw all the arrows that point you to that section, so we took that direct route. I felt so bad at passing by all that wonderful art without time to appreciate it. I too was very surprised at the size of the actual painting, yet it held the most attention in that room with all those other much larger works of art. I am sure your pass will be well worth it--make sure you use it often.
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