The Louvre

I've been to the Louvre before. It's a big honkin' museum in the middle of Paris and you can't miss it. It used to be a palace, and if you came in one end and wanted to see something on the other end, you had to walk about a mile all the way around. Then some architect built a big pyramid in the middle of the palace and connected the 3 buildings and they all lived happily ever after. Venus de Milo, Mona Lisa, and a bunch of pictures of Jesus and Mary, all under the same roof.

So the other times I was here we had time to linger and spend time with the paintings we liked and search the incomprehensible guide for what we couldn't find. This time it find the greatest hits and get out. After all the buildup, everyone was ready to be disappointed by the Mona Lisa and it really wasn't that small, or that dirty or that impossible to see. There were, however, a ton of Japanese tourists ignoring the signs saying don't take pictures, with flash yet.

Venus de Milo I'd never seen before and it was very beautiful, though I'm not sure exactly what the big deal is, as compared to all the other amazing statues we saw. I'll have to do some research. I must note that the Greeks didn't have a goddess named Venus, she was called Aphrodite.

It was kind of strange seeing this amazing art with someone who was more concerned that the Sephora in the concourse might close before we left. It never occurred to me that one could spend 11 days in Paris and not experience it at all, but I can attest that it's possible. It's sad though.