Popping to the Louvre

It gets a whole wall to itself..

Who’d want to have their art displayed in the galleries that are on the path to the Mona Lisa? Nobody, that’s who. Everyone zooms past just looking for the next sign to tell them the way to the most over-hyped piece of art in the world. We took a look (well – it is a thing) but we also gave other works on the way a look too. There was some lovely stuff on display. Pro Louvre tip: look up. The ceilings are incredible.

And to think that we just put two coats of White Silk emulsion on ours…

We didn’t see it all of course. Nobody could in one day. Or even a week. I’ve no idea how they keep track of all the stuff they’ve got. We took a peek at the “Venus de Milo” because it’s another must-see item. Historical note: to make some of the more interesting sculptures the artists used a technique called “green marble” where the bits that were a bit hard to do (like a man with the legs of a horse for example) where done in green marble and then replaced with the correct figure in post-production by another sculptor.

Start of the Sphinx Grand PriX

The Louvre also contains big chunks of Napoleon’s home life, including his bedroom and dining room.

You could set at opposite ends of the table and have a talk at great length…

I can just imagine them inviting their chums around for dinner and then sitting and chatting afterwards:

Guest 1: “Where are you going for your holidays this year Napoleon?
Napoleon: “I was thinking about Russia…”
(orchestra plays a minor chord)

After the Louvre we thought we’d go on to see the other end of the art experience by heading up to the Pompidou centre. To me modern art seems a lot easier to make. It doesn’t have to look like anything (one artist hit upon the clever wheeze of making the canvas exactly the same colour as the wall behind it). I may be a bit of a philistine (said the old man) but any art that needs to be explained to me is probably not art at all. Then again, I am a sucker for bright lights and pretty colours so that was plenty to keep us occupied. And we had a coffee there which was very nice.

Not sure what it is. But I like it

On the way back home we stopped off at Chatalet Les Halls. A big shopping centre which contains a Fnac (yay!) and also a Lego store. I headed for the Lego store and the pick and mix. I made a Lego picture years ago and the white pieces have aged really badly. I was overjoyed to discover that the pick and mix had a bunch of the ones that I wanted, so I filled a bag with these. In the process I also scattered fair few around the place – which I felt rather bad about. I was really pleased until I got back to the hotel and worked out that I’d actually bought a very large number of the wrong kind of piece. Oh well, I’ll find a use for them.