Would you stop staring at the ceiling?

Yes, I couldn't help but stare at the ceilings of the Louvre. They were almost more beautiful than the paintings and sculptures! I found myself taking more shots of the ceilings than of the art!

Yes, you can take pictures at the Louvre. They are trying to teach the masses on how to interact with art.

Lesson 1 - How not to act around priceless pieces of art...

Now for the Grand Dame of the Louvre! The Mona Lisa is fenced off and enclosed in a glass box.

Some of my best shots of the Louvre courtyard, came from taking pictures out the windows.

Towards the Jardins de Tuileres

This is a piece made of mosaic tile, its called the Judgement of Paris

And for all you Da Vinci Code fans, here is the upside down pyramid

It was like watching a train wreck in progress..

Okay, I was raised in a rural community. That being said there are some things in life that you can be raised in a small town but you still know not to do. Such things might include not insulting your boss, going out in public in your underwear and touching a piece of art at the Louvre.

My husband and I were walking through the Grecian marble exhibit at the Louvre when we saw a train wreck about to happen.

Now, I've done some bad stuff. I nearly knocked over a candle stand at a church we visited but I recovered fast enough to overt an international incident. The North American tourist (I know this because we were close enough to hear them speaking North American english) we saw in the Grecian exhibit, errr not so much.

We were strolling along, down the centre of the exhibit. Along each side were various busts and sculptures. Security politely strolled through the exhibit but honestly, you were rarely aware of their presence...until this happened.

Just to the right of where we were, we spotted a couple looking at a torso sculpture. It had no head or arms, just a torso. To our left, we saw a security guard patrolling. The couple decided to take a picture. Totally allowable.

What is not allowable is to touch the artifacts, which is what the man (of the couple admiring the torso) was about to do. He was about to put his arm around the statue. Oh no you didn't! Oh yes, he did.

For whatever reason, he changed his mind and decided to take off his hat and hold it above the torso's non existent head. Oh dear, this is going south really fast.

Barely a second after he took his hat off and placed it over the torso's head, the security guard pounced. Both my husband and I cringed and had to look away. Thankfully, all that was said was something like "Please sir, you are at the Louvre and that is an original."

It was uncomfortable just to watch.

Its finally open!

Thursday we decided was going to be museum day. And it started off a good day to go the museum, since the temperature had dropped and it was much cooler/rainier than it had been all week.

We started off with breakfast and headed for the Metro to check out la Musee Rodin (Rodin's Museum) which along with the Louvre, were now open. Yay!

We opted to go to the Rodin Museum first, as it was rainy and we figured everyone would want to go inside. The Rodin Museum has both outdoor and indoor exhibits.

Stunning, truly stunning. If you are ever able to finagle a trip to Paris, this would be a must see. Both my husband and I agree that while the outside gardens and layout are nice, the bronze statues don't really do it for us. The marble statues found inside, however were amazing.









After we toured the museum, we headed off to the Louvre. We crossed yet another bridge (there must be 20 bridges that cross the Seine) and headed east towards the Louvre.

The weather had improved but was still not as hot as the previous few days. We stopped for lunch at a stand operated by Paul, a boulangerie in Paris. We had a fantastic baguette but an even more amazing rhubarb tart. I could eat those tarts for every meal for the rest of my life. Its so hard to find decently priced rhubarb where we live and despite my best efforts to grow it, I only kill it.

We made our way through to the Louvre, paid our entrance and scoped out what we really wanted to see. Our legs were really starting to get tired so we knew we needed to limit our outing.

Now, I've seen a few exhibitions of Renoir, Monet, Picasso and Corot back when I lived in Ottawa, so I had two goals for my visit, see the Mona Lisa and see the Venus de Milo. Pretty basic and very fulfillable. Not seeing these two artifacts would be like going to Egypt and not seeing the Pyramids.

We headed off to the Italian painters section in search of the Mona Lisa. Don't get me wrong, the paintings are spectacular. The colours as vivid as the day they were painted, but the surroundings, OMG. The building and its adornments were almost more breathtaking that the actual exhibits. And of course, because I was allowed to use my camera, I can show you too!

BTW, the Mona Lisa is a much smaller painting than you'd think and the Venus de Milo is quite impressive but so are all the other busts.

Head over to Would you stop staring at the ceiling? for more pictures of our trip to the Louvre.