The Louvre

The Louvre is one of the world's most famous museums. The Louvre Palace which began as a fortress in the 12th century became a royal residence by the 14th century.  It was during the French Revolution that the Louvre was transformed into a public museum.
Anyone who has viewed the movie, "The DaVinci Code", can easily identify the building with the glass pyramid as Musee du Louvre.  The pyramid was designed by the famous architect, I.M. Pei.  The structure was completed in 1989 and serves as the main entrance to the museum.  (The pyramid and the underground lobby beneath it were created because the original main entrance could no longer handle the enormous number of visitors). The museum averages 15,000 visitors a day.

Interior

Interior

Over 35,000 works of art are displayed at the Louvre.  The painting collection has more than 7,500 works dating from the 13th century to 1848.  Of course the most famous painting in the collection is Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa.
The Wedding Feast at Cana is the largest piece in the collection (262 in × 390 in).

Mona Lisa

 

Portion of Wedding Feast at Cana

Venus de Milo

Winged Victory of Samothrace

VERSAILLES

In direct contrast to the bucolic setting of Monet's residence, we next visited Versailles. Versailles was formerly a hunting lodge, built by Louis XIII in 1624.  Louis XIV expanded the hunting lodge into one of the largest palaces in the world. The Palace covers 37,000 acres and at one time had 1400 fountains.  

Gate at Versailles

Courtyard

View of garden from Hall of Mirrors

Hall of Mirrors

View of Garden from Hall of Mirrors

Queens Bedroom

The French court was officially at Versailles in 1682. During its height the Palace is said to have accommodated 20,000 people, including 9,000 soldiers and 5,000 servants.

Interesting tidbit:
The smell at Versailles was said to be "unique out of all the palaces in Europe" (duc Saint-Simon). There were no functioning toilets until 1768. By the time of the French Revolution in 1789 there were only 9, and those belonged to the King and his closest family members. The rest of the palace simply had to live with the constant smell of the privy-chambers clinging to their clothes, apartments and the general atmosphere. Although banned, chamber pots were constantly emptied out of the nearest window. (from Wikipedia)

The 1919 Treaty of Versailles was signed in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles.
This room, with one wall lined with 17 beveled mirrors opposite windows overlooking the gardens, has 10 crystal chandeliers along its length. 


The gardens at Versailles were designed by landscape artist, Andre Le Notre.
The stiffly formal gardens include ornate fountains with "magically still water expressing the power of humanity over nature."

Gardens at Versailles

Gardens at Versailles

PARIS, A WEEK TO REMEMBER

The first time I saw the TV promotion I knew I was going to go.  "Paris, A Week To Remember", visit Monet's Garden, the Eiffel Tower, Versailles, The Louvre, ooh la la! 

Visiting Paris has always been at the top of my bucket list.  And so it came to be, I went, I saw, I loved it!

My sister, Alma, was my traveling companion.  She flew from Baltimore to Detroit to connect with the tour group.  Our plane, scheduled for 9:40 pm was delayed but I had passes to Delta's Sky Club so our three hour wait for departure was very comfortable. 

Rose was our tour guide, she made sure we were well taken care of from start to finish.  Robbie and Jim were the TV station celebs who accompanied the tour. They were great hosts.


We arrived in Paris about 1:30 pm.  Charles de Gaulle airport is about 15 miles north of Paris. John Andre, our local guide, met us at the airport. On the motor coach to the hotel he oriented us with interesting facts about the city and culture and identified the sites we passed. 

Some interesting tidbits:
Population of Paris:  approximately 2 million
Area: 41 square miles
Highest point: Montmartre 
The Seine bisects the city, there are 35 bridges that span the river
The two islands in the Seine are Ile Saint-Louis and Ile de la Cite.

We passed the Stade de France, the soccer stadium which seats 110,000, and the Bois de Boulogne, the famous Parisian park that is 2 1/2 times larger than Central Park. Finally, we reached our hotel, Puhlman, Eiffel Tower.

Our first dinner in Paris was at Le Baillide Suffren, a bistro near the Eiffel Tower.  The croque provencal was delicious.

La Baillide Suffren

First view of the Eiffel Tower