Paris trip 1: Louvre Museum – when the art is not only displayed inside

As a history and beauty lover, traveling to Paris is a dream of mine since a very long time. Before coming to France, I have watched countless videos and read several books about the City of Light. My family was so “sick” with “Autumn in Paris”, “Walking video in Paris” or some kind of videos like that during our lunch. Such obsession is the reason why I prepared a list of more than 30 locations in Paris where I must set my foots in (and of course, take a lot of pictures). When having chance, I decided to have vacation lasting one week to my dream city (my friends said I’m crazy). And that was a right choice at the right time because the trip to Paris in autumn was so wonderful and I just completed two third of target places after 7 days.

I decided to write a series of articles for Paris and share with everyone about my feelings and pictures when traveling to my dream places. The first destination for opening the series is Louvre Museum (Musée du Louvre), the most visited museum in the world.

1. The first impression

At first, I thought Louvre is just a normal-size building with a glass pyramid in the front. After coming out from metro station nearby, I walked through a long building to find the famous glass pyramid. The museum surprised me by its grandeur and magnificence when I realized that the past building belongs to the Louvre. You can imagine the pyramid is just a dot (.) in the middle of a capital letter U, that U is the Louvre. This massive size can be explained by the history that Louvre used to be the main royal residence of French Kings from 16th century until the Sun King Louis XIV moved the royal family to Versailles.

The below pictures were just captured two third of the massiveness of the Louvre. The remaining parts of two wings was hidden to my camera.

Queuing is inevitable when visiting this museum. I came here at 8:30am and stood in this “short” line to get inside at the opening hour at 9am. The later you came the longer the line is.

The glass pyramid (Louvre Pyramid) is not simply a decoration, but it is also the entrance to the museum.

To save time for queuing another line before ticket box or lose opportunity to explore the museum due to limited tickets per day, you should buy online ticket before coming to the Louvre. This is what looks like below the pyramid:

2. Art masterpiece

Denon is the most visited wing. This is the home of Mona Lisa as well as other notable art treasures. It’s impossible to explore the whole museum in one day even if you just get a glimpse of the artifacts displayed here. That’s why I chose Denon wing to spend my day.

The statue Winged Victory of Samothrace, one of the most famous statues at the Louvre, represent the goddes Nike (Victory). This masterpiece of Greek sculpture was created from 2nd century BC.

This is 19th Century Painting Gallery where displays most well-known French paintings.

Can you guess what are visitors waiting in line for?

Yes, that’s for taking picture (or selfie) directly with Mona Lisa, the most famous painting in the world by genius Leonardo Da Vinci. As I was not interested with a selfie here, I decided to take a side photo. It is still good, isn’t it?

The unfinished portrait of General Bonaparte is the portrait of young Napoleon Bonaparte. The author of this is Jacques-Louis David, the official painter of Napoleon. This portrait was begun in 1798 and represented Napoleon at the Battle of Rivoli, holding the Treaty of Campo Formio in his hand. This incomplete artwork let us know how artists work on their paintings.

This is The Coronation of Napoleon by Jacques-Louis David (too) in 1807, which depicts the coronation of Napoleon at Notre-Dame de Paris. I've loved this painting since I read about Napoleon at my 8th grade (14 years ago). I was so overwhelmed and interested by the details of the painting, from the patterns on the Emperor's shoes and robes to the facial expression of each character.

The story of this coronation is interesting too. Instead of traditionally having the crown by Pope Pius VII, Napoleon put the crown on his head himself. This self-crowning gesture emphasized both political and spiritual power of the Emperor over the Pope. Even more, Napoleon also placed the empress crown to Josephine who was kneeling before him, but not the Pope did as tradition. We can see how sad and meditative the Pope Pius VII was at that moment.

There are 204 people in the painting, including the artist who was also presented in the coronation. This is one of the largest painting works in the Louvre.

Liberty Leading the People, a painting by Eugène Delacroix, representing the July Revolution 1830. In the painting, a woman leads a varied group of people while holding the flag of French revolution, which again become the national flag of France after toppling the monarch (once again). The Goddess of Liberty, called Marianne, becomes the national symbol and personification of France. Now we can see Marianne in many places in France, including the woman symbol in the center of French flag under any official letters of the country.

The Galerie d’Apollon, was ordered to build by King Louis XIV who identified himself as sun god Apollo or the Sun King. To create this masterpiece, the King summoned a group of greatest painters, gilders and sculptors at that time, who later worked on the famous Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles. It was so impressive to see the royal ceiling painting and decoration.

From such magnificent ceiling, we can understand why France normally associates with the word “luxury”.

Here he is, the Sun King Louis XIV. I will have a later chapter about Versailles Palace, where was built to demonstrate the power of King Louis XIV.

This is King Louis XV’s crown, one of the few crowns that are remained to this day.

A view from a cafeteria of the Louvre.

As I told you, French are in love with symmetry and this inverted glass pyramid is proof of that. In Da Vinci Code of Dan Brown, this is the tomb of Mary Magdalene who is metaphorized by the “Holy Grail”.

3. Afternoon

The afternoon at the Louvre is one of the greatest moments that I have spent in Paris. I am missing the time when the sun is still shining at 6pm.

Can you imagine that it had already been 6pm?

A “small” corner of the outside Louvre with a small glass pyramid. Yes, the museum has three pyramids on the ground, but not one.

The buildings are just the “Ctrl+C” and “Ctrl+V” of each other. Old and straight buildings are typical view of Paris.

4. Tuileries Garden

Stepping out the Louvre is the Tuileries Garden. There used to be a luxurious palace here (Tuileries Palace) where is the residence of Napoleon. Unfortunately, the palace was completely destroyed by fire under Paris Commune in 1871.

Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, another triumphal arch in Paris. It was built in 1806 by Napoleon to commemorate his military victories. The Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel is the older (but smaller) brother of the famous Arc de Triomphe we known (Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile).

The garden is so massive too.

People lounging on chairs around fountains are also typical symbols of Paris.

5. Evening

Don’t just come to the Louvre during opening hours or the afternoon, the evening will not disappoint you. Because the night here is so sparkling and magical…