La Giaconda

The remainder of our visit to The Louvre we decided to focus on a couple of core works only.  With map in hand we followed the crowd to see La Giaconda.  The Mona Lisa really is the star attraction, however passing the Winged Nike at the top of the staircase enroute was also a highlight.  I can't recall how many times I have seen reproductions of this sculpture so to see her in real life was great. There really was no need for a map.  You just joined the bubbling mass of people and went with the flow, and eventually there she was...and yes, she was worth seeing. Other pieces of interest to me were some of the works by Ingre and Delacroix.  Again after years spent looking at them in books.  I also decided that I would like to see Vermeer's Lacemaker.  I think because I so enjoyed the book The Girl with the Pearl Earring....based on another work by Vermeer.  The interesting thing was that when we found her she was quite small...but so beautiful, and well worth the leg work to locate her.

The Turkish Bath, by Ingre was another thing again....time for a compass, cut lunch and stop enroute to ask for directions.  We finally found the work, but by then both of us were at saturation point.  Just walking past so many artworks is overwhelming.  I too was at my limit, so we decided to leave it for the day. 18.10.2012

The Louvre

Visiting The Louvre is really something else.  The sheer scale of the building, not to mention the collection is truly overwhelming.  I knew from our walking the perimeters of the building earlier in the week, that the building was huge.  It literally sits on an entire city block.  That said, finding the front door is a challenge.  Again we seem to have got lucky in that having a prepurchased ticket we were able to access the building through the members entrance.  Near the group entry point I think the guy was just being nice, but was not going to argue, so grabbed Frank and we scurried in. Navigating the cloaking facilities was much easier than at MO, with separate drop off and collection points, as well as one cloakroom for coats and umbrellas and a separate one for backpacks and bags. Biggest win of the day was that not only could we take our camera inside we could use it.  Without the flash obviously but who cares!  We were in, and we were happy. First port of call was to find the mosaic in the antiquities area.  I knew their was mosaic in the collection but was blown away by the sheer scale and quality of it.  For me it was a case of being like a child in a lolly shop.  Big smiles all around.  We spend some time there exploring mosaic from 6th century Turkey.  Something you would never see in Australia.  The clarity of the design, the workmanship, and as mentioned the sheer scale being enough to make me truly value the hours that would have gone into creating these works.  The floor panels would have been approximately 3 x 8 metres - incredible! 18.10.2012