Day 3: Thursday, June 10, 2010

First stop: The Louvre Museum.

Since the museum was only a few hundred metres away from our flat, we walked to Museum’s gates at the Metro stop M. Palais –Royal/Musee du Louvre.

Construction of the world’s largest museum began in 1190 and still continues today. We entered through the baroque gates to the courtyard (Cour Napoléon) and on to underground level surmounted by a glass pyramid.

Architect I.M. Pei’s modernist pyramid was built amid much-public debate in 1989, yet when viewed today seems the apt addition to the world’s largest collection of antiquities, sculptures, drawings, prints and objets d’art. Sprawled at 45 acres, the Louvre is Europe’s largest royal palace; in fact, it can easily fit in three cities the size of Vatican City.

According to history buffs, the first building on the site was built on the Cour Carrée (square courtyard) in the 7th century, in an area known as Lupara, Latin for wolf hunt kennels, and was later adapted in French to Louvre. However, the first documented structure was a small fort built by King Philippe Auguste (c. 1190-1223) to protect the western wall of Paris.

Since we couldn’t possibly visit all of the Louvre’s departments (there are seven), we chose to zip through the Egyptian and Oriental Antiquities to roam at the Greek, Etruscan and Roman galleries and view the museum’s two most famous pieces, the Venus de Milo and the Winged Victory (Nike) of Samothrace.

We wanted to look for Venus de Milo but couldn’t go past the crowds, so we opted to brave a flight of stairs to gaze at the Winged Victory, the statue of the Greek goddess of victory, still as awe-inspiring as when it was first sculpted in 190 BC.

Then we went on another rush—searching for the famous Mona Lisa painting by Leonardo da Vinci, the most famous among the Italian Renaissance works. Safe and secure under a glass enclosure, La Joconda (painted in 1503) lives up to her name, the Smiling One, as she smiles mysteriously at millions of gawkers each year.

The Louvre’s painting collection which begins with the Middle Ages up to the mid-19th century boasts of masterworks by Jan Van Eyck, Peter Paul Rubens, Jacques-Louis David, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Goya, Velasquez, Eugene Delacroix, Raphael, and Titian. Wall upon wall gave out the splendour of the ages and the artists` renditions of their milieu. They presage the work that we would encounter on our next stop, the Musée D`Orsay.

Second stop: The Musée D’Orsay at Metro Solferino.

We walked through the sculpted gardens of The Tuilleries amid a fine mist and sauntered along Pont Royal, one of the bridges spanning the river Seine.

Musée D’Orsay, a former railway station-turned-art museum, presents all of the various artistic movements from 1848 until the First World War. It showcases both the icons and iconoclasts of the 19th century art world, the Impressionists against their more conservative contemporaries.

It was a joy to behold works by Van Gogh, Degas, Gaugain (see painting below), Monet, and Pissarro at eye level, and on more modest walls, an experience that could make one weep. The week we were there, construction was going on in some of the exhibit areas that the museum administrators thought it best to house the Impressionists in one exhibit hall. Because we were pressed for time, it was the greatest exposure to these masters in one visit we could ever have had in our lifetime.

Van Gogh’s paintings remain fresh, full of life and scintillating, as if the artist had just left his brushstrokes on the canvas to dry. The sun`s rays peeking through the blades of grass and harvested wheat, the blue skies against the orange, yellow and dusky folds of old cottages and fields. Alas, we were so enthralled we forgot to take photos of his masterworks.

After Musee D’Orsay, we passed through yet another bridge to go back to gardens in The Tuilleries, where we encountered a couple of lovebirds seated in wrought-iron chairs under the trees, enjoying their little trysts with a bottle of wine, fruit and some cheese. If ever we were to go back in Paris, we resolved to re-enact this scene al fresco, if not with the same youthful vigour.