Paris - Louvre

Our last stop of the day in Paris was the western world's largest museum - The Louvre. With 30,000 works on display, we knew we couldn't see it all in an afternoon. We strategized over a croissant, Americanos and the English language museum map. We decided on the Denon wing, named after the first head of the Louvre Museum. We'd see French and Italian masters; we'd see some Roman statutes and we'd avoid the Mona Lisa (too crowded) and we'd be set.

We entered through the formally despised but now beloved pyramid entrance. Opened in 1989, we had not previously seen it. I can report it is perfect, albeit a little hot. It's the modern/ancient structure that adds cloak rooms and bathrooms and cafe's and other practicalities, and then you climb up to the exhibits that inhabit this former French palace.

After a little caffeine fortification, we climbed up to the Denon wing and saw such artists as Delacroix, Boticelli, Michaelangelo, and Da Vinci, among other notables. Mixed in was Winged Victory, perched at the top of a staircase (see picture), originally found on the island of Samothrace, north of the Aegean Sea. It is considered a masterpiece of its type. But as often happens, the unexpected is the most pleasing. That included a Roman carving of the head of John the Baptist, served on a platter, and some ginormous paintings of Napolean, triumphing in Prussia and crowning himself Emperor of France. Those canvases were massive, not made for any living room, but for a palace. Above one door was a sizeable portrait of Elizabeth I on her death bed. She did not look good.

And then we came upon the Mona Lisa. We had said we wouldn't see her. Too many crowds. But they had died down somewhat as closing time approached, and we thought, well why not. Mona Lisa is smaller than you expect, and she gets her own wall. For those who don't follow art closely, she's that known painting you just have to see. More importantly, she's that one piece of art you have to get a selfie with. See pictures above to illustrate the situation. Meanwhile close by is a Da Vince of the virgin with no pile up of humanity and a face that suprisingly looks like Mona Lisa, but you can get ten times closer.