Oh, bonjour mes amis.
I just got back from a vacation in Paris. Being a huge history fan, France of course holds many historical sites. I had a camera and took pictures of here and there. Lets roll...
The Louvre
First when you enter the louvre, there is magnificent garden in front of it called ''les tuileries garden'' The garden used to have a palace, but it was burned down in 1870. There's many statues in the park, made mainly during the 2nd empire(1851-1870, Napoleon III). Although most of them are greek mythology, two stuck out.
Instead of losing 1/3 of his army in the alps, Hannibal decided to go to the Louvre
Caesar and me. He came, he saw, he visited the Louvre
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Inside the Louvre--------
The egyptian part of the museum is alright, with the famous Ramses II statue and the seated Scribe, although i find it somewhat dry due to my lack of Egyptology knowledge. You have to really know Egypt to enjoy the Egyptian section, as it's full of symbolism. If you are big for Egypt, im pretty sure nobody beats the English museums.
This picture makes me look like a fatass. Whatever. Love that grin on Amenhotep II(ruled Egypt circa 1427-1400 B.C)
The Greco-roman part of the museum was my favorite. Absolutely amazing sculpture and beautiful art. Stunning sculptures of clothing and drapery. The Louvre is worth it alone just for the greco-roman part. They have sculptures of many of the roman emperors, mostly Augustus and the epic beards of Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius. In the Greek department, many goddess's and mythological stuff, as well as the absolutely gorgeous Wings of Samothrace. Philosophers and orators are there as well, from Socrates to Cicero.
Athena god of justice, i shall sacrifice 4 cow's if you re-open Full tilt and get me my money. Also - when you gonna let me tap that?
Demosthenes, famous writer of the Philippics, a series of text warning the Greek city-states of the impending Phillip II/Alexander the Great invasion, but nobody listened to him. Sadly my dear Demosthenes, Modern Greece also has impending doom and we are still not listening.
The Middle Age stuff is not that exciting unless your a big fan of christian art. The Gothic stuff once in a while is pretty good looking - in particular the darker objects, as well as the baller gold-diamond stuff. Most of the artifacts are from the Frankish-Germanic kingdoms. I was quite stunned however, at the sculptures from the middles ages - they were quite good, although not like the greco-roman ones, are still very impressive. They are much more gloomy, very representative of the darker times of the middle ages.
Philippe Pot, a burgundy nobleman, gets an epic funerary monument. Also, i very nearly got kicked out of the Louvre because i grabbed a chair and stood up on it to take this picture.
Very baller chess set
The Renaissance and Enlightenment collection is gigantic and is the Louvre's main attraction. This in my opinion, is sadly the effect of the gigantic hype machine over the mona lisa. She is impressive to see in person - it is a good painting - but i think many of us have seen better. Also, the Italian renaissance stuff is so filed with either:
a) Jesus getting beat up
b) Angels and baby's flying over nun's
c) Apostles having a meal
There is so many of them and they are all so alike and not very well done(their technique is fairly poor especially when you see the later stuff). The 18th century stuff is better, although it is still quite dull due to the obsession of greek themes. Dicks and tits are on the menu when it comes to the greco-roman paintings. Anyway, enough ranting.
This picture is the best way to represent the mona lisa and renaissance section - a huge tourist magnet for average paintings. It's a good painting - but not the best IMHO.
We are gonna go back in time here and finish with the near east collection which is greatly underrated along with the Islamic collection(the Islamic section was closed when i went). Along with the photo's, you get to see the code of hammurabi and many of babylonian statues that are VERY impressive.
An absolutely amazing sculpture from the near east under Sargon II(722 – 705 BC)
A small fragment of Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar II, a king famous for being portrayed as ''behaving like a cow and eating grass'' in the bible. Yeah, im sure a king who re-built one of the most famous cities in the world acted that way... yes...
I could post more but i think that's what im gonna do for now. All i gotta say is that the Louvre is gigantic and if you go there - get there at 9:00 when it opens and you will have enough to go all the way to 5:30. If you are a history buff, then you will probably need to either plan specific routes or go for 2 days. Alright, im done for now, up next my trip report to the military museum.