Her Mysterious Smile...

No, I'm not referring to Sydney!

Today was spent at the Musée du Louvre. Before entering the magnificent palace of art, a ride on the ferris wheel was at the top of the agenda. The view from the top showed that we were really in the middle of everything; the Louvre and Notre Dame on our right, the Arc de Triomphe and Eiffel Tower to our left, and Sacre Cour behind us.

A stroll through the Jardins des Tuileries offered the perfect location to eat our lunch and then a short walk to the pyramid to enter the Musée du Louvre. We opted to focus on the Denon wing as the immensity of the museum would limit how much we could see.

The first highlight was the Winged Victory of Samothrace at the top of the stairs. We wandered in awe through the hall of Large-Format French Paintings to salon 7 to view the Mona Lisa. We could tell where the painting was by the volume of people in the room. It was pretty packed but we still managed to push our way to the front and admire de Vinici's work.

Tom found out that Kim's favorite painting (La Jeune Martyre) was back so we found it salon 77 and spent time admiring it and several other works nearby. (NOTE: In November 2005, Tom and Kim were at the Louvre and La Jeune Martyre was on loan to a Tokyo museum.) Moving on, we meandered to the Spanish Paintings by way of the 16th-17th century and 17th-18th century Italian Paintings. Exiting the hall of 13th-15th century Italian Paintings we headed downstairs.

The next main artifact we admired was the Sarcophagus of a Married Couple. Afterward we crossed into the Sully wing and found the temporary location of the Venus de Milo.

From there, we headed back to the pyramid. I made a detour through the Pre-classical Greece section to admire the sculptures. After browsing the gift shops, we spent a few minutes admiring and photographing the buildings exterior. We headed through the Passage Richelieu to the Palais-Royal (one of Tom's favorite spots).

Dad says it was a great day and is looking forward to another great day tomorrow. Bertha says she was very disappointed in the day because she wanted to be able to see the entire Louvre in one day and cannot!

We opted to have dinner in and unwind. Tomorrow is an early day!

QUOTE OF THE DAY: WWWHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!! (Sydney De Lora on the ferris wheel)