We had decided to forgo the Louvre given the late hour (11:30) and wanting to skip the crowds. So instead of going into the museum, we headed out to the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, built in 1806. As we came above ground, the rain began with fury. We got to the edge of the trees and decided strolling in the rain with 2 tired kids might not be the best plan. I suppose we were destined to see the Louvre. Time to cart the stroller with Miles in it and have Eliot walk back down the 1.5 flights of stairs to the Museum entrance below the pyramid. The crowds were big, though Jim says it was worse when he was last here.
Musee de Louvre
Egyptian sculptures
Goat head from antiquity
Venus de Milo
Given the sheer magnitude of the museum and knowing that 2 little ones can only put up with a museum for so long, we settled on seeing the Egyptian antiquities (we figured Eliot would like the mummies and sphynx) and the 3 great ladies of the Louvre along with taking in art along the journey to these areas. The Egyptian area was neat. I had seen many history shows on the Egyptians, but it was awesome being next to items that were 3-4000 years old. And to see the paintings and the heiroglyphics on rock that were so old and the jewelry, it was amazing.Miles had fallen asleep in the Ergo carrier on my back pretty soon after entering the first section of the museum. Eliot fell asleep in the stroller halfway into the Egytian exhibit and missed the one mummy (coffin). The Louvre is not really designed for strollers with sleeping children, so we spent a lot of time looking for elevators that we never found and carrying boys up and down stairs. Our next stop was the great ladies. We entered the room where Venus de Milo stands on a pedestal. There were hundreds of people, all snapping photos [allowed in this section of the museum]. I watched on from the side and glanced at the huge painting on the wall in her room. I couldn't help but wonder what the anonymous sculptor would think about so many people standing around taking pictures of this lady.
Next, Winged Victory and Da Vinci's lady. They were restricting traffic flow to one direction and the elevator was not accesible to us without walking down and then back up a huge flight of stairs with a stroller. We took another elevator down to the ground floor, then walked to another hall (building) and took that elevator up to the floor with the Italian painters. Even with this, you still have to get up and down small flights of stairs throughout the museum. This place is better for kids who can walk on their own!!
We saw Winged Victory across a giant stairwell. She was down and then up a set of stairs which just seems too daunting for us. The museum had the section directly in front of the Mona Lisa roped off so you just slowly walked toward her in a big herd. It was kind of nice because you got to study her for 10 minutes that way as you moved closer and closer. When you reached the front and were done you just shuffled off to the side and let the next gazer up to the rope. The security guards were watching for cameras that poked up on the end of an arm projecting from the crowd. When someone flashed, they ran to stop the picture taker. At least the lights didn't go out this time, as it used to be in the past. The nice thing is that they let kids go right up to the bannister so they can get a very nice view. Eliot woke up as we were in the herd and got to see "the most famous lady" [as I told him]. Since it was still pouring out, we decided to stay inside the museum and walk along the Italian painters until we reached the Caroussel exit - where we had been 2 hours earlier.
posted by Whitney @ 6:59 PM
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