199 Days to Go!

As you can see from the counter on the right, I will be in Paris in only 199 days. I'll be exploring the sights with Kate McKinnon and if you'd like to join us, just click on the link to the right to read all about our plans for France and Spain this summer and then contact Kate to let her know you'd like to come along.

One of the places I'm looking forward to going back to see more of is the Louvre Museum. The building itself is so beautiful, it could be an exhibit all on its own, even if it were totally empty.

Of course, it's not. It's full of fascinating things, like the Mona Lisa, painted by Leonardo Da Vinci. It's funny because people are so fascinated by the Mona Lisa, which is actually a rather small painting mounted on a special wall in the middle of the room surrounded by an airtight, completely secure enclosure that they don't let you get too close to and often somewhat obstructed by the tourists clustered in front of it, that they are a bit surprised when they turn around and a huge painting directly opposite to it that takes up virtually the entire wall, the Marriage of Cana by Veronese. There are about 50 other paintings in the same room, if you happen to notice them and of course, numerous others throughout the museum.

You can also walk through Napoleon's apartments, which are quite ornate and almost gaudy, as if Napoleon shared a decorator with just slightly better taste than Liberace. One can also find sculptures, beautiful stained glass and all sorts of other works of art and antiquities from around the world scattered throughout this former palace of the kings of France.

My favourite of all I have seen so far in the Louvre is this sculpture, known as Victory of Samothrace, which literally stopped me in my tracks as we were passing through the hallway in which it is located on our way to see something else. I'm not entirely sure why I like it so much but I do. That's the thing about art, you don't have to know what it is, who created it or what it means, you just know when it speaks to your soul.