After a sleepless, jetlagged filled night our group headed out for the Louvre at 8:30 in the morning. We got to the Louvre in time to be there when the doors opened at 9. We were given 4 hours at the Louvre, which isn’t nearly enough to really see and take in all the amazing things it offers and displays. We of course saw the Mona Lisa and the Statue “Winged Victory”.
A group of us decided to see as much as we could. We were able to see the Egyptian collection with the mummies, statues, papyrus sheets and hieroglyphic writings. After the Egyptian collection we made our way to over to the Venus de Milo. Such a beautiful statue! Then we continued on to the Mesopotamian collection and saw the Code of Hammurabi.
It was so neat to see something that I had actually learned about in class!! It made what I had learned so much more real. Then we went and saw the coronation crown of one of the Louis and Napoleon’s apartments. The décor of his apartments were beautiful, but they were so ornate that I began to wonder if he ever got a headache from so many tassels and what not…cause I would have gotten a major one. After this we decided to conclude our hurried Louvre excursion with some fantastic French, Dutch, and German paintings. Unfortunately some of the museum workers were on strike (which is usually the case in France) so the top floor with the paintings was closed.
So after meeting up with our group we headed over to a museum that was about a 5 minute walk from the Louvre called “L’Orangerie”. It was a very small museum with some impressionist works like Monet’s “Water lilies” and some works by Cezanne and Renoir.
It was a nice little museum, but I don’t know if it’s something that I would want to do again. At this point it was 2:30 pm and we were all hungry (since breakfast is yogurt, small croissant, and some orange juice). When we mentioned this to our instructer she was once again surprised…we didn’t know why. We began to wonder if French-Germans (that’s what her nationality is) eat…we decided that based on her astonishment of our hunger, they don’t.
But instead of going to get food we went to the Musee D’Orsay. This is easily my favorite museum. It is full of amazing works of impressionist works. There were a lot of Monets, Van Goghs, and Renoirs. There were many others but those are my favorite. The Musee D’Orsay is an old train station (gare) that was converted into a museum. After the museum we went back to the hotel to put our feet up and get some long awaited food before catching the metro up to Sacre Coeur.
But instead of going to get food we went to the Musee D’Orsay. This is easily my favorite museum. It is full of amazing works of impressionist works. There were a lot of Monets, Van Goghs, and Renoirs. There were many others but those are my favorite. The Musee D’Orsay is an old train station (gare) that was converted into a museum. After the museum we went back to the hotel to put our feet up and get some long awaited food before catching the metro up to Sacre Coeur.
This was a really beautiful place. The church had beautiful stained glass and beautiful statues lining the halls and the ceiling. Then we had some time left over so we wandered into this little town that was adjacent to the Sacre Coeur. And since it was Whitney’s birthday we got Birthday ice cream! Gelato in Europe is so much better then at home…I just cant wait for Italy!! Yum yum!! Then we headed back down the hill to meet up with our professor. By the time we got back to the hotel we were all exhausted so we decided to get our evening crepe and coca light and call it a day!
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