Day
6- Paris
The
entrance to the Louvre is an experience on its own. The long wait in line
enhances the excitement as you get closer to the three glass pyramids. Once
inside, a staircase leads you down into the museum where you can lose yourself
for hours.
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However,
the line sometimes – or most of the time- is simply not worth it. We were let
in via a little secret entrance. Near the Carrousel du Louvre, in Rue de
Rivoli, there is an alternate entrance to the museum. While it is not as grand
as the main entrance, the pyramids get old after an hour in line staring at
them.
We
were led down a flight of stairs as well and into a corridor of bistros, gift
shops and jewellery stores. For a moment you forget every step is taking you
closer to one of the largest museums in the world, and then from afar you see
the inverse glass pyramid. The natural light, which wasn’t very strong on that
cloudy day, illuminates the room where you are officially inside the Louvre.
It
is impossible to see the Louvre in just one day and if you happen to do so by
some double dog dare you couldn’t refuse, you would not enjoy it. Egyptian
antiquities, Greek and Roman art, paintings by Michelangelo, Raphaelle and Da
Vinci; the choices are endless and stumbling through them can easily overwhelm
you.
As
a person who has lost her temperament before by overstaying my visit, believing
going through the museum at random was the best way, I now give the complete
opposite advice. Make a list beforehand of the pieces you most wish to see. It
is best to see five great masterpieces than seeing twenty and feeling numb and
bored all the way through.
La
Gioconda
The
first in many people’s list is Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. A permanent piece
in the Louvre, La Gioconda is located in the Denon Wing, a quick right from the
main hall to Room 6. Before you see her, the crowd of people with their cameras
will let you know you have arrived at the right place.
The
search for Mona Lisa causes one to ignore every other painting until finding
it. Standing in front of Da Vinci’s great work I expected to feel a sense
of wonder, a wonder caused by finally gazing at the mysterious woman who stares
right back. Yet standing in the middle of a frenzied crowd destroys the
experience. The disappointment overwhelms any other sensation I expected to
feel. She is smaller than you’d think, even smaller against the large empty wall behind her and is encased in a protective glass to
shield her from the constant flash of cameras.
A
single rope and two security guards set the five feet boundary between the
Renaissance painting and the people extending their arms looking for the best
angle to catch a quick picture.
Was
she beautiful? Was she as intriguing as all history teachers described her? I
couldn’t tell. My view was constantly interrupted by someone’s camera or iPad.
It took great effort to squeeze between the crowd to make it to the front and
once there, if it took more than thirty seconds to get a good glimpse of Mona
Lisa, a collection of multilingual complaints let me know my time was up.
It
is hard to appreciate what is in front of you when you are watching it through
a viewfinder and the angst to take Mona Lisa home with you, the now or never,
is easily contagious. The experience, however, has been tarnished by this
desperation to bring back evidence of a wonderful trip to Europe.
Venus never disappoints
me. In
fact, finding her was the complete opposite than finding Mona Lisa and unlike
Mona Lisa, she is bigger than I would have thought. She stands in the middle of
a room with tall ceilings and while people might be surrounding her, the view
is never compromised.
I
often wonder if people would love Venus de Milo if she had her arms. Maybe she
would look like any other Greek statue. But it is her lack of arms which makes
her interesting, a reminder of the passage of time and the fragments of the
past that give a broken glimpse of it.
Perhaps
her intrigue is the product of propaganda throughout the centuries. The Goddess
with no arms. Yet, the feeling upon seeing her is relief. Ah. I found you, just
like I imagined.
Psyche
and Cupid
My
aunt insisted on finding her favorite piece. She didn’t know where it was but
she would recognize it immediately. She was talking about Antonio Canova’s Psyche
Revived by Cupid’s Kiss.
I
had never seen it before but I quickly understood why it was her favorite.
Only
just awakened by her lover’s kiss, Psyche reaches up to Cupid as he cradles
her. Their faces, so close, show great emotion and intimacy. Their bodies are
barely touching but the language between them is tender. They are oblivious to
anything around them. In that waking moment, the mythological lovers regard
each other and relish being together once again.
It is not up to me to tell you to visit Palace
Louvre because you are in Paris and if you didn’t go, then you definitely
didn’t visit Paris. Go because there is something inside those walls you want
to see before you die. Do it because you want to remember that moment in detail
years later when you have wine with your travel friends and smile about it. Go
because you will feel something when you see what you want to see, something so
great you won’t need a camera to remember it. Go because nobody told you to go.
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