Our second day in Paris was quite a hectic day. We started off the day with a visit to the Cathedral of Notre Dame. It is the largest and most magnificent church I have been to in my life. However, a warning to tourists: Don’t bother to visit the treasury there, it is quite useless.
The Church was by the Seine so we bought tickets for a cruise on the Seine where we could get off at every tourist stop, visit the place and get back on to the next tourist spot again. We got off at the Jardin de Plantes and then discovered, much to our disappointment, that it was a zoo. We then got back onto the boat and got a view of the Royal Palace and the Hotel de Ville before finally getting off at the Louvre. Now imagine about 20-30 buildings, each the size of the Salarjung Museum, all interconnected to form a large rectangle – that is the largeness of the Louvre.
We didn’t have much time at the Louvre because it was closing much earlier than expected. And I decided I would rather spend my time going over a few sections of the museum thoroughly than running all over the place. My first stop was at the Mona Lisa (of course!!). I have ever understood why it is so famous and I still don’t. I haven’t found it mystical or enchanting in the least – for me, its just a nice painting, but then I’m not your average art critic!!!
I went through the section of Italian paintings and enjoyed them very much. I especially found the paintings of Paris Bordon very interesting. Now I know what it actually means when a painting is termed ‘erotic’. Some of the other paintings were also quite impressive. I then checked out the crown jewels of the royals in France and surrounding countries. The room in which they were kept was much more awe-inspiring, with the entire ceiling and walls painted or sculpted.
However, what I liked most at the Louvre were the Napolean apartments. For those of you who have visited the Gwalior palace, the apartments are the same concept, but on a much much grander scale. All the visitors to this section were gasping audibly as we entered from one room to another. To everyone who makes a visit to the Louvrre: don’t miss this!!! I then saw other objects of art and sculptures etc but didn’t know what to make out of them so the less said about them, the better.
The Church was by the Seine so we bought tickets for a cruise on the Seine where we could get off at every tourist stop, visit the place and get back on to the next tourist spot again. We got off at the Jardin de Plantes and then discovered, much to our disappointment, that it was a zoo. We then got back onto the boat and got a view of the Royal Palace and the Hotel de Ville before finally getting off at the Louvre. Now imagine about 20-30 buildings, each the size of the Salarjung Museum, all interconnected to form a large rectangle – that is the largeness of the Louvre.
We didn’t have much time at the Louvre because it was closing much earlier than expected. And I decided I would rather spend my time going over a few sections of the museum thoroughly than running all over the place. My first stop was at the Mona Lisa (of course!!). I have ever understood why it is so famous and I still don’t. I haven’t found it mystical or enchanting in the least – for me, its just a nice painting, but then I’m not your average art critic!!!
I went through the section of Italian paintings and enjoyed them very much. I especially found the paintings of Paris Bordon very interesting. Now I know what it actually means when a painting is termed ‘erotic’. Some of the other paintings were also quite impressive. I then checked out the crown jewels of the royals in France and surrounding countries. The room in which they were kept was much more awe-inspiring, with the entire ceiling and walls painted or sculpted.
However, what I liked most at the Louvre were the Napolean apartments. For those of you who have visited the Gwalior palace, the apartments are the same concept, but on a much much grander scale. All the visitors to this section were gasping audibly as we entered from one room to another. To everyone who makes a visit to the Louvrre: don’t miss this!!! I then saw other objects of art and sculptures etc but didn’t know what to make out of them so the less said about them, the better.
1 comment:
didn't you get pained by the thousands of identical biblical paintings that dot these museums?
at least that was the case at the National Gallery in London - a thousand paintings about "the adoration of the kings" and such...
only a few dutch guys were good there...
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