Day 6: 15 October 2009, Thursday
It was Day 6, our last full day in Paris. Over the past few days, we had pretty much covered everything that we wanted to see, so our main objective for today was straightforward – a visit to Musée du Louvre. The Louvre is the world’s largest art museum, with over 380,000 objects and 35,000 artworks in its permanent collection. It is also the world’s most visited museum, with an average of 15,000 visitors per day. As such, it was on our list of must-go places in Paris.
At about 9:45am, we made a quick visit to Tuileries Garden, which is just beside the Louvre. KP and I had been here previously, so we let TH have some time to savour the garden before proceeding to the Louvre. Just like yesterday, we were again blessed with sunny weather today, which made it such a joy to take photographs in the beautiful garden.
The Louvre Museum occupies what was formerly the Louvre Palace. But before it was a palace, it was a medieval fortress built around 1200. During the 14th century, the building was converted into a residence for the French monarchs. It was later converted into a museum in 1793 during the French Revolution.
The most recognisable architectural feature of the Louvre today is undoubtedly the huge glass pyramid in the Napoleon Courtyard. The glass pyramid is considered quite a recent addition to the Louvre, as it was only completed in 1988. It was conceived in 1981 as part of a broader Grand Louvre project by the then-French president François Mitterrand, who wanted to reinvent and reinvigorate the national museum.
Mitterrand selected the late Chinese-American I.M. Pei as the project architect. Pei proposed a master plan including an underground entrance space accessed through a glass pyramid in the central courtyard. Thus, the glass pyramid was built and it became the main entrance to the museum.
The glass pyramid has a height of 21.6 metres and a square base with sides measuring 34 metres. It was meticulously constructed with a total of 603 rhombus-shaped and 70 triangular glass segments held together by metal poles.
The pyramid is widely regarded as a beloved landmark today but it wasn’t always the case when it was first unveiled in 1988. Locals called it a blight on the face of the ancient Louvre Palace, criticising its modernist style as being incompatible with the classic French Renaissance style and history of the Louvre. Others said that the pyramid was an unsuitable symbol of death from ancient Egypt.
Personally, I feel that the glass pyramid is a worthy addition to the classic buildings surrounding it. The design is striking yet elegant, provocative yet respectful. The reason I say so is because it doesn’t try to upstage the surrounding buildings by being taller or larger. At the same time, the pyramid is so markedly different in terms of its shape and construction material that it stands out on its own. With its square base and triangular face, it also respects the symmetrical nature of the courtyard and the buildings around it.
Taking advantage of the beautiful blue skies today, we spent some time photographing the pyramid from many angles. TH had brought along a small tripod so we managed to get some nice pictures with his mounted camera.
At 10:48am, we got our tickets (€9/S$18.63) and entered the Louvre. It was packed inside. While the courtyard above appeared empty, it was quickly clear where the crowds were. This is the most visited attraction in Paris after all. Like most visitors, we made a beeline to see the most important artwork in the entire museum – the Mona Lisa.
The Louvre contains some of the world’s most treasured pieces of art but none of them captures the human imagination more than the Mona Lisa, arguably the world’s most famous painting. Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa in the early 16th century and King François I bought the painting in 1518, thereby making it part of the royal collections. For centuries, Mona Lisa has enchanted the public with her enigmatic expression – is she smiling or is she not? There was only one way to find out.
The Mona Lisa is displayed at Salle des États, the largest room in the palace. Even then, the room was packed to the rafters. Everyone was there to see the Mona Lisa. Since 2005, the painting has been exhibited in a protective glass case. Beside protection from bullets, the glass case also helps to control the temperature and humidity to prevent further damage to the artwork.
The immediate emotion of seeing the Mona Lisa in real life was one of disappointment. There was no way you could see the painting up close. Besides being encased in bulletproof glass, there was a wooden railing forming a semi-circular barrier around the painting. Additional queue-pole barriers further pushed the crowd back so you could only see the Mona Lisa from a good six to eight metres away. Because of the distance, everyone tried to get to the centre to score the perfect shot with their digital cameras.
It also felt like an anti-climax because the painting was actually quite small in real life, measuring only 77cm by 53cm. It didn’t help that the Mona Lisa was being displayed in a large room together with other larger paintings. The crowd, the distance and the small size of the actual painting made it difficult to appreciate the true beauty of Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, much less decipher whether she was smiling or not.
Of course, the Louvre is not only about the Mona Lisa. There are plenty of other notable artworks, sculptures and artefacts that deserve attention too. However, it could be a case of having too much of a good thing, because the sheer number of pieces on display turned out to be overwhelming. With each gallery, it was getting harder to be wowed by the artworks within and they all looked the same after a while. I turned my attention to appreciate the intricate details of the former palace building instead.
We concluded our visit to the Louvre at about 2pm. By that time, we were tired and hungry so we went to have lunch to replenish our energy. The rest of the day was pretty laidback, as we wanted to take things easy after the exhausting morning at the Louvre. We went to Printemps for a look and did some window shopping.
In the evening, we met QM for dinner after he ended work. QM had picked a famous restaurant called Chartier. It was a very popular restaurant and we had to queue for a while before we got in. Chartier is described as a bouillon, a term for a traditional, spacious restaurant serving traditional French cuisine, in particular a Bouillon (broth).
After the sumptuous dinner, we decided to rent the Velib bicycles and cycle back to QM’s apartment. It was a very chilly night. Along the way, we stopped to take photos of the Eiffel Tower one last time. Honestly, I can never get tired of seeing the Eiffel Tower. With that, it was the end of Day 6, and our last full day in Paris. One more sleep at QM’s apartment before we head back to England tomorrow afternoon!
