Louvre Part 19: Outside

I'll finish up all my Louvre posts with some shots of the facade and the pyramid. Thanks everyone for putting up with my Louvre fever. I loved it. Best part is that I bought a Louvre youth card, which is a one year membership for unlimited access to both the Louvre and the Eugène Delacroix. I think I'll be spending quite a few afternoons here.

Louvre Part 18: The Beautiful Staircase 2

The upper parts of the stairs. The arches and the details are amazing.

Louvre Part 17: The beautiful stone stairwell

In the Denon wing stands this beautiful staircase leading up to the Flemish paintings. I took quite a few shots, none which does it justice, but it is really wonderful.


Here's the base of it.

Louvre Part 16: The Marly Horses

The Marly horses, sometimes included in what some call the Louvre's famous four. They originally stood on the Champs d'Elysée, but were replaced with replicas and moved to the Cour Marly. The only true Marly horse is in the first picture, but the others that were in the courtyard I included in the post.

The real Marly horse.

The others.

Louvre Part 15: The Cour Marly Continued

A few more shots of the Cour Marly. These shots(save for the next post for the horses) should be the last of them, well for now anyway :)

Louvre Part 14: Cour Marly

In one of the wings, the Richelieu I think, is the Cour Marly, a glass topped courtyard which houses the Marly horses. I have quite a few pictures of this so this post and the next will be for the courtyard, and the third for the horses.

Louvre Part 12: Athena

Just down the hall from the Venus de Milo, is this statue of Athena, which I find to be better crafted and more appealing.

Louvre Part 11: Under Construction

This is a room that is barred off from the rest. The place where some of the works go to rehab.



I managed a shot through the bars.

Louvre Part 10: Children's Courses

The Louvre has many activities and workshops available to all ages. Here's a picture of a childrens workshop they have every few days. I think it's really great that the kids get to learn about art so early.

Louvre Part 9: The Winged Hall and Passage of Statues

A few more shots of the hall of Winged Victory and the Passage of Statues(my informal names for the places, not their official names I'm sure) that leads off of it.

The arches...
Entrance to the Passage of Statues.

Inside the Passage.

Louvre Part 7: The Famous 3

The three famous pieces the museum has, Venus de Milo, the Mona Lisa, and Winged Victory, the only piece I was impressed by was Winged Victory. The other two were okay, nothing spectacular in my mind, but Winged Victory was truly beautiful. It is what one could really call a masterpiece. So, as I don't care quite as much for the other two, here they are, and Winged will have it's own post.

The Mona Lisa. The picture is bad because over-eager Asian tourists were literally pushing me out of the way to get their own shots. There's also thick glass covering the painting, so there's a bit glare as well. I'll just buy the postcard if I want the shot.

The Venus de Milo...

Louvre Part 6: The Artists

When you walk along in the galleries, you see several people have set up easels and are reproducing the famous works. Could be quite the inspiration I imagine...

Louvre Part 5: Galerie d'Apollon

On the way to the Denon wing from the Sully wing you walk into this round room, with a doorway straight ahead, and the doorway pictured, leading into the Galerie d'Apollon, Apollo's Gallery, one of the most ornate, and well named, rooms I've seen. Here's the pictures.

Here's the inside views...

Louvre Part 4: Inside

The inside of this palace is gilted and carved and painted to death, but it's so beautiful. As it was constructed over many years, there's many different styles to see. Don't sigh too much about pictures of the ceiling; the art on the ceilings rival the art on the walls.

Gilt, gilt, gilt.

Another ceiling in the Sully wing, near the Italian paintings.

This is the top of a doorway in the Sully wing.

A stairwell ceiling.

A picture of the arches in the rooms displaying artifacts from the Middle East over 3000 years old.

Louvre Part 3

Taken standing in the middle of the inner courtyard.

A view of the big pyramid where the main entrance is located.

This is the courtyard wall which you walk under to get into the main area. I took the picture standing on the corner of the bridge which leads to Ile de la Cité(that's where you'd find Notre Dame and the Conciergerie).