Yesterday we went to the Louvre Museum. It was massive. It was apparently first a fortress that was the size of one of it's currently smaller walls. Then, over time and rulers, it grew and changed from an old castle outside the city to become the Louvre. We mainly observed the ancient Greek and Roman artifacts. There was mainly statues of Aphrodite, Zeus, Hermes and Athena. In case you don't know them,
- Aphrodite (Venus) is the goddess of love. Her symbol was the dove.
- Zeus (Jupiter/Jove) is the lord of the universe and god of the sky and lightning. His symbol is the lightning bolt.
- Hermes (Mercury) is the god of travelers and messenger of the gods. His symbol is the caduceus.
- Athena (Minerva) is the goddess of wisdom and warfare (the strategic side of it). Her symbols are the owl and Medusa's head.
We saw the Venus de Milo, as well as a ginormous statue of Athena. There was a lot of vases and urns, as well as some real gold coins. One had Heracles on one side and Zeus on the other. Another had some symbols on one side and Athena on the other. There were some in gold, some in silver and some in copper. It was all really cool. We explored a few more exhibits including ancient Egyptian, the remains of the original fort Louvre (now underground), then we went out of the giant museum, because we were all getting a little cranky. We got some pizza in a resturant while watching fish eat bubbles and regurgitate plastic pebbles. We said, "fishbrain.exe has encountered an error. Activating emergency bubble eating procedures!"
Then we split up. Me and Mama decided that there was a famous painting in the Louvre that we hadn't yet seen. You guessed it. Papa and Angus decided to go on the bus home, which was 20 minutes slower, while me and Mama decided to visit the all famous Mona Lisa. It was totally not over commercialized in the Gift Store cough lies cough. Anyway, there was a crowd almost as big as the room (and this room was like the size of a smallish house) so I got the camera and snuck through the crowds of tourists to the grand painting itself.
I didn't get it.
It was nice, I guess, but not insanely amazing. What was it about it that people liked so much? I sure couldn't tell. I took a few blurry photos, and went back. Not really life-changing art. Interesting, I suppose.
Then me and Mama decided there was one last thing to see. The Apartment of Napoleon was very interesting, though I didn't know why. So we looked out a window to see where it was, with help from Mama's Louvre Map app. In case you don't know what it looks like, it's like a square U with a line through it near the bottom. We were at the end of the left wing, and Napoleon's Apartments were at the end right wing. So we walked all the to the center of Louvre, then took a wrong turn at an elevator and walked back up the left wing to the Mona Lisa. Then we smacked our heads in frustration and went all the way back down again and got it right, went up an elevator, went outside on a balcony/resturant to get our bearings, went down the elevator, went up the right wing (accidental double meaning) and got up to Napoleon's Apartments.
They were closed for Maintenance.