Honeymoon in Paris Day 2: The Louvre Museum
Tuesday, November 28, 2017Wide awake at 2:00 AM on our second day in Paris, my husband and I were ready to head out the hotel by 7:00 AM. We planned absolutely nothing for the entire day, but the weather forecast made it easy for us to decide what to do. Since the app said it’s going to be cold and rainy from noon onwards, we decided to spend half our day at the Louvre Museum.
We still have plenty of time before Musée du Louvre opens its doors at 9:00 AM. And so to fulfill one item in my bucket list, my husband and I walked around 1st Arrondissement to find the nearest boulangerie (bakery) for our breakfast and do what the locals do. One of the best things about Paris is that though it’s an expensive city, you can always have freshly-baked breads in the morning for at least €1. I can’t stop eating croissants on a daily because these ones from Paris (and from small boulangeries on street corners) are the best way to enjoy classic French bread and pastries!
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| Hangry wife. |
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| Happy wife! Breakfast at last. Croissant was from Boulangerie Julien along Rue Saint Honoré. |
Another thing I wanted to do in Paris was to walk around wherever my feet would take me and get “lost” somehow. I wanted to be away from the crowd and away from the touristy feel of central Paris while still being in the city center.
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| In front of La Comédie Française. |
By 11:00 AM, I took my husband for lunch at Le Carrousel restaurant at Rue de Rivoli, which is very near The Louvre and Jardin des Tuileries. It still looks the same way back in 2014, but the waiters were more accommodating this time. Unfortunately, I wish I ordered pizza because I just couldn’t justify how expensive my carbonara was for its taste and presentation (too upset, I didn’t take a photo of it). It was made the traditional carbonara way (egg whites) with bits of ham, but I didn’t like how they topped the pasta with fresh egg yolk. On the other hand, my husband was truly happy with his burger and fries combo that I ended up eating 1/3 of his plate.
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| Husband having the time of his life with his burger, fries, and salad. Fact: he ALWAYS orders the better food at a restaurant. |
After our meal, we went towards the museum compound and entered via Le Carrousel Du Louvre, which was the best way to enter the museum for its short to non-existent queue. It's also the underground entrance going to The Louvre. We bought our museum tickets for €15 each. The way to the ticket counter inside the souvenir shop is still the same, although I noticed that there were more food selections now at this side of the Louvre.
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| Coming from Le Carrousel Du Louvre entrance, we passed by a food court and some shops before reaching Musée du Louvre's inverted pyramid. |
Back in 2014, my family and I only spent 30 minutes inside the Louvre Museum just to look at the Mona Lisa (which for that reason alone was a waste of money). This time with my husband, I wanted to make sure I’d maximize my time inside the museum and see as much artworks as I can (and follow the footsteps of Robert Langdon!).
Today, the Louvre Museum still stands as the largest and most visited art museum in the world and is considered as a vital landmark in Paris. It houses paintings, sculpture, artifacts, and objects dating back to ancient civilizatons to the 21st century, including important articles from royalty and churches. Musée du Louvre is also composed of permanent collections and seasoned exhibits so every visit is a unique experience.
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| We rented the audio guide for €5. This one has English commentaries from curators and lecturers. It's also equipped with GPS so it's easy for us to track our steps and pick which work of art we'd like to know more. The three wings or pavilions accessible are Denon, Sully, and Richelieu. |
Before entering the museum, my husband and I got ourselves an audio guide so we could appreciate each art piece and its significance in a particular period. Usually, visitors check out the Greek and Roman sculptures first upon entering the museum, but my husband and I headed to Denon wing right away, where the paintings are located.
Of course, one of our first stops was Room 6 where the Mona Lisa was located. As always, this room was the busiest and guarded, too.
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| The Mona Lisa: tiny, yet most photographed and most famous painting in the world. Painted by Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci. |
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| The painting behind us is The Wedding Feast at Cana by Paolo Veronese, an Italian Renaissance painter. It faces The Mona Lisa inside Room 6 and its size is 6.77 m × 9.94 m. It has already been restored, though it was created in 1563. |
We moved on to other paintings and although each work of art wasn’t included in the audio commentaries, some did really made an impression to us, such as The Coronation of the Emperor Napoleon I and the Crowning of the Empress Joséphine on December 2, 1804, Liberty Leading the People, Man With a Glove, The Wedding Feast at Cana, The Entombent of Atala, Une Odalisque, and The Children of Edward to name a few. My husband and I would look at paintings individually and then we tell each other when one of us happens to find the work of art interesting, based on its underlying meaning and history.
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| The Coronation of the Emperor Napoleon I and the Crowning of the Empress Joséphine on December 2, 1804, painted by French artist Jacques-Louis David in 1807. The coronation happened at Notre Dame Cathedral. This painting has many elements, including the play of light which draws attention to the highest ranks in the society. Napoleon stands holding the crown, while Josephine kneels down in front of him. |
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| The Coronation of Napoleon is a huge painting with a size of 33 ft x 20 ft. |
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| The Apotheosis of Homer by French Neoclassical painter by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. It was finished in the year 1827 and was commissioned to decorate the ceiling of musée Charles X at the Louvre. The figures include Homer being crowned and surrounded by poets, philosophers, and artists including Raphael, Michaelangelo, Heroditus, Plato and Socrates. |
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| Mademoiselle Caroline Rivière (middle) painted by artist Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres in 1806. On the left is Caroline's father (Philibert Rivière) and on the right is her mother (Marie-Françoise Rivière). The artist made a living through commissions from wealthy and well-known figures in the society. |
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| Liberty Leading the People (La Liberté guidant le peuple), painted by French Romantic artist Eugène Delacroix in 1830. The painting honors the 1830 July Revolution or the French Revolution, bringing down King Charles X. The Goddess of Liberty holds the French flag while leading the people forward over the fallen bodies. |
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| Husband photographing and listening to audio guide at the same time. |
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| Galerie D'Apollon known for its high and ornate ceilings, and elaborate walls filled with paintings. |
The next rooms we visited were the decorative arts galleries, including the Marie-Antoinette rooms. Marie Antoinette was the last queen of France before the French Revolution happened. These decorative arts represented the most sophisticated and ornate personal objects of the monarchy. Some of the royalty’s prized possessions were preserved and the monarchs’ opulence emanates from each object until now.
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| Huge carpet at Richelieu wing (Appartements Napoléon III, I think), bigger than a 24 sqm condo unit. |
After the decorative arts section, we went to other rooms containing other personal possessions relating to geometric tools, which I believed were temporary exhibits. Other collections inside the museum were Catholic and church relics, as well as Medieval artifacts and Egyptian antiquities.
Slithering my way inside The Louvre...
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| My feet were already hurting. It was painful to wear booties when walking around the museum for 5-6 hours. Wrong shoes to wear! |
The last area we visited at Musée du Louvre were the Greek sculptures and Galerie Michaelangelo. Usually it was the first one being visited, but considering the museum closes in 30 minutes, this area already had a few visitors left.
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| I wonder how many men did this pose. Lol. |
We headed out towards Jardin des Tuileries to grab a snack at a Paul foodtruck. I’ve been craving for apple turnover for years! Paul in Manila didn’t have this pastry, last time I checked. My husband and I finished our pastries at the hotel and rested for a while.
I could no longer fight my craving for rice, so we headed out once more to find an Asian restaurant. Luckily we passed by Rue Perrault and found a Chinese restaurant called Le Shanghai, which was only a three-minute walk from Hotel de la Place du Louvre.
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| €10.50 for a plate of fried rice and chicken chops set with 8 oz coke and lychee-almond jelly dessert. Mahalia, but rice is life! |
Before ending our second day in Paris, my husband and I stopped by the Louvre once more. Mesmerized at the beautiful and well-illuminated pyramid and pavilions, I was just so thankful to be spending another day in Paris with my husband, my bestfriend.
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| The beautiful Louvre Pyramid at night. |
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