Loove at the Louvre

Though I have visited Paris before this trip, I has never made it to the Louvre.  Realizing this oversight, Josh and I set out to visit one of the largest - and the most-visited - museum in the world.  Housed in a former palace that was reclaimed for the people soon after the country was, the Louvre is a spectacular structure and a great museum.  While recent additions like I. M. Pei's glass pyramids caused a stir in the Parisian community, I like that the space continues to evolve as necessary.  In this case, a new entrance was needed because the former entrance couldn't handle the volume of tourists that passed though each day.  And, hey, Parisians love to complain about changes that they later embrace... like the Eiffel Tower.

Since a true appreciation of the Louvre collection is a multi-day or -week or -year undertaking given its 35,000 works of art on display (of 380,000), we decided to stop at the pieces that have made the Louvre famous and unique.  The museum has a strong collection of ancient Roman and Greek art, with many pieces in incredible condition.  It also boasts the French Crown Jewels, since it is a palace that was taken over.  Some of its pieces, like the Mona Lisa, were property of the king (King Francis I reportedly fell in love with the Mona Lisa painting as soon as he saw it).  We wandered through the various galleries, appreciating the beauty of the Venus de Milo, the painted ceilings, ancient codices, Winged Victory, Boticelli paintings, Da Vinci portraits, and numerous other priceless works.

"Look at that six-pack!  I guess the avenues de Milo did crossfire."  -Josh Ruck

Trying out for the position of future Queen

Clearly, we take our art very seriously.  And after the Louvre, we spent the afternoon exploring the other arts of Paris.  For lunch, we enjoyed the art of fine dining at Le Fumoir, where I had the most delicious goat cheese, eggplant, roasted tomato, and roasted pepper sandwich ever created.

Next was the art of high fashion, which Josh modeled quite well. (Paris was having huge sales everywhere, so we decided to see what was "in" these days)

Next was the art of architecture, at Notre Dame (we finally went inside).  And finally, we explored the art of friendship, a little bit by accident.  We went to dinner at a wonderful little restaurant on a hidden side street - Heureux Comme Alexandre on Rue de la Parcheminerie.  While we had picked it for the rave reviews of its cheese fondue, we were too seduced by the idea of cooking our own meat and veggies on a hot stone.  And were filled with regret.  So on the way out we asked a lone man if we could try just one little piece of bread dunked in the cheese (the minimum order is for two people, so he had extra).  And he wholeheartedly agreed that we should try it.  We ended up sitting with him for quite some time, learning about his business (geology) that brought him to Paris (working for an oil company).  He was so lovely, and the fondue... Well, the fondue was fantastic.  The cheese was so delicious and melted on a piece of French bread well... I was heart-stopping, but totally worth it.

Tired from a long day, we headed home filled with memories and cheese.

Spotted: Graffiti.  There is a surprising amount of graffiti decorating odd walls, metro lines (on lines that run every 3-5 minutes until 1 am), and an assortment of hard to reach places.  While I have a great appreciation for street art, most of this is rather poorly done and makes the city look dirty.  What a pity.