Heading to the Louvre

Everyone was pretty tired so they slept in this morning, except J. R., who could not sleep, so he sat patiently until around 8:45 and then got everyone up. The Louvre was on the agenda for the morning and it opened at 9:30, but was just around the corner from our hotel, so we could afford the lie-in. We eventually all got up and dressed and walked down the street to the side entrance of the Louvre. We had bought a Paris Museum Pass from a tour operator before we left the States so that meant a relatively easy entry into the main area of the Louvre.

Louvre Castle

We had settled on the Sully wing, which was where the Greek and Egyptian artifacts are housed. We figured the kids would last about 10 seconds looking at the Mona Lisa and the paintings. After having our three-day Museum passes stamped (well, two of us did, Janie somehow managed to slip through without having hers stamped, which technically meant it would never expire), we went to the Lower Ground Floor where we learned about the history of the Louvre and walked around the excavated foundations of the Louvre Castle that pre-dated the Palace. The Louvre Castle dated back to Medieval times and was founded by King Philip Augustus as a fortified palace on the Right Bank. Remains of the Medieval curtain walls and the keep (tower) remain in the Medieval Gallery in the Sulley Wing.

Sully Wing

The rest of the Medieval castle was razed by future Kings to build the Louvre Palace, which served as the seat of power in France until 1682. The main part of the palace was started in 1535 and expanded by Henry IV from 1589 though 1610, which included the addition of the Grande Galerie, which rises along the bank of the Seine for almost a quarter mile. Louis XIII had the Denon Wing completed during his reign, while the Eastern Wing was added under Louis XIV. The next stop for us was the Ground Floor and the Greek antiquities including the "Venus de Milo" and then we looked at the Egyptian artifacts on the Eastern side. We skipped over the other Arabic artifacts because the kids were starting to drag, especially Rebecca, and went through some of the Greek and Roman bronze artifacts, which included some jewelry which excited Rebecca.

Galerie d'Apollo

Next up for us was the "Galerie d'Apollon", which includes a beautiful ceiling painted as an homage to Louis XIV and houses the remnants of France's Crown Jewels, most of which were stolen during the French Revolution and sold off.

We'd had enough of the Louvre for one day and were getting hungry, having had no breakfast, so we stopped at a cafe in the main area of the Louvre and ordered some waffles with whipped cream, a chocolate pastry and some muffins, all of which were quite good. Our server was very friendly and tolerated our passing attempts at his language with a smile. We left the Louvre feeling good about our morning and got ready to head out to find some clothes to wear.