Letters from the Lighthouse: Travel Edition: Sur mon propre nouveau, naturellement

On my own again, I actually felt a little less stressed. I think that was mostly due to the fact that I could be on my timetable and make decisions without committee. Brandon was really good at always asking me what I wanted to do and what I wanted to see, but we always needed to keep in mind that a five-year old won’t last as long as adults. But I have to say, Reagan was a real trooper!! She did great and was up for trying almost anything as far as food.

I slept in a little bit (yay!), had a chocolate croissant for breakfast that I’d bought the night before, and went out the door with my Paris Museum Pass in hand. First stop, Musee L’Orangerie. I learned just the day before that Monet’s lily paintings were at this museum. They were extraordinary. There were four extremely large and long paintings on each wall of two rooms. Gorgeous!! I couldn’t believe I was actually looking at these real Monet paintings and not just some photos of them on a calendar! It was really difficult to get the entire painting in one camera shot.

I also checked out the other gallery of art work and was not disappointed. I really liked this museum!

Renoir

Two Young Girls at the Piano - Renoir

Renoir

Paul Cezanne

Cezanne

Monet

Gaugin

Monet signature

Matisse

Le Bourdoir - Matisse

Matisse autograph

Laurencin

Rodin

I then walked the length of the Tuileries Garden. At first I thought “no big deal,” but the closer I got to the Louvre I got a much different picture. People were gathered around fountains, lazing in chairs, drinking coffee, resting, reading, and just “being.” It was wonderful to experience. It was a beautiful spring day and the flowers and trees were starting to bloom, mothers and children were playing, and tourists were snapping selfies in front of the fountain.

The London Eye from the Tuileries Garden

A beautiful day to be hanging out in the Gardens

The Eiffel Tower from the Tuileries Garden

And just like that, I could see the pyramid that distinguishes the front of the Musee de Louvre. I couldn’t believe I was actually there!! My museum pass let me skip the really long ticket line outside which was awesome, and just like that, I was inside.

I got so excited when I saw the pyramid of the Louvre!

From inside. The three men in suits were looking down on the crowd when the alarms were going
off to leave the building . . . security issue.

The Louvre is MASSIVE to say the least. I knew I was not going to be able to see very much, but I had a mission to see the Mona Lisa, Winged Victory, and Venus de Milo. Anything else was a bonus. Well, as soon as I entered and checked in my bag, there was an alarm and an announcement that everyone needed to head towards the nearest exit and leave the building. I could see that some people were taking this seriously and most were not. I wasn’t sure what to do, but I know I didn’t want to go back outside and lose some of my precious time in the museum, so I saw a tour group heading up the stairs. I decided if they left the building I would leave with them, but if they stayed in the building I would stay with them. That’s how I ended up seeing the exhibition on Napoleon’s apartment which I probably would have missed otherwise and it was extraordinary.

As I was following the directions to the Mona Lisa, I saw the Winged Victory at the bottom of the stairs.
I could not believe how many people were walking right past it because they were in a hurry to go see the Mona Lisa.

Beautiful!

Venus de Milo

Would you expect Napoleon's apartment to be any less?

I had so many pictures of chandeliers, so I decided to take these pictures from a different angle

This was HUGE! I couldn't get underneath it because it was roped off.

The piano

Dinner anyone? Three very large chandeliers over one very long dining table.

I don't know if these had anything to do with Napoleon or not, but this case was right outside the apartments.

Fueled by my earlier courage to defy orders, I went in search of the things I had determined to see. I went, I saw, I conquered . . . and then some! What a fabulous museum!! I wondered all over the place, getting lost a couple of times. But whenever I got lost, I ended up seeing something pretty cool.

A cool display of Egyptian statuary. Isis, Osiris, etc.

I only saw probably about 1/100th of the statuary and sculptures in the Louvre, but I took pictures of some of my favorites that I "accidentally" ran into.

Melpomene - Muse de la Tragedie
Hardly any of the signage for these sculptures / statues were in English.

Le Tibre

The Emporer Marcus Aurelius

I loved this one by Rinaldo Rinaldi

Mercure enlevant Psyche
Speaks for itself

Captif - by Michelangelo

Another Michelangelo.
I believe both of the sculptures by Michelangelo were designed for a tomb.

Psyche ranimee par le baiser de l'Amour
Beautiful!

Headless Athena

Athena Parthenos (with a head)

Another statue of Athena

Diane of Versailles

These two gals know how to vacation!

Apparently I really liked the sculptures. Either that or I ran into more sculptures than I did paintings. Honestly, we are talking the most gigantic museum ever!

Le Calvaire de Fra Angelico (learned about him in Rome)
Very old

It's by Boticelli - Madonna and Child with John the Baptist
This woman's face looked familiar to me, like I'd seen her in another painting somewhere. She must have
modeled for a lot of painters.

Saint Jean Baptiste - Bacchus
by Leonardo de Vinci

A giant mosaic on the floor

As I was wondering around, trying to find my out of the Louvre, I ended up downstairs quite a ways in a place where there were not a lot of people. The "halls" were very large and dark, with stacked blocks/bricks on both sides. And then boom! There is a sphinx! I'm thinking maybe this is an exhibition in progress.

A small portion of the Louvre from across the Seine.

After having a quick lunch at restaurant in the Louvre, I headed out in search of Musee D’Orsay. I learned there was at least one Van Gogh at this museum so it was worth it to do a little back tracking across the Seine, only to learn that this museum is not open on Mondays. Bummer. I found a metro and headed back to my apartment.

Musee D'Orsay

After hanging out for just a little while at the apartment and recharging my phone/camera, I went in search of a bookstore called “Shakespeare & Company.” My friend Patty told me about it and after looking at the map I realized it was just across the river (back on the left bank) from Notre-Dame which was only about 10 minutes from the apartment. Such a cool bookshop that has seen some very famous people in its day. What a fun experience to be in a non-chain, non-giant bookstore. The sun was setting on the walls of Notre-Dame so I hung around the bookstore and had dinner at a little bistro right next door before walking home to pack and get ready to head on over the English Channel to London.