Paris 2024, Day 5

I got out the door in time to get to the Louvre about 8:15 or so, since my ticket was for the first time slot at 9am. I took a few minutes to take some photos of the area before getting on line.

The shot I was *trying* to get during the marathon itself. Oh well. Better late than never. :-) After all, it's not going to be possible ever again after the Paralympics finish.

King Louis XIV:

I was relatively early on the line, and, boy, am I happy that I decided to get in line when I did rather than trying to kill some time first. Very quickly the line became very long. Unfortunately for me, there was a very annoying, loud (enough) couple behind me where the husband was complaining the entire time -- both about the fact that they were there so early compared to the 9am opening and because of the two young kids who were constantly moving in and out of line, bored out of their minds with the waiting. Yeah, the kids were a bit annoying, but they were quiet and reasonably polite. It's not like that guy couldn't empathize, he was bored stiff, too.

Opening time came, and pretty quickly we flowed through the security line and inside. Not dissimilar to rope drop at a Disney park, everyone flocked in one specific direction. Yep: La Joconde (a.k.a., Mona Lisa). They have signs pointing to her and a select few other individual exhibits.

Thankfully when I made my way there (so that I could avoid the chaos that surely would be there after much time), there was only a relatively small crowd that had already developed:

I made my way closer and was surprised that it was very easy to take a totally unobstructed photo -- likely not so easy later in the day. And, around the corner, there was an explanation of some of the parts of the landscape portrait.

(The Wedding Feast at Cana)

Often it was even more impressive looking up at how the ceilings were painted:

(Coronation of Napoleon I by the Pope)

(A few of the notables in the painting)

(Winged Victory of Samothrace)

Nice tribute to some of the greats of the various disciplines:

(David and Goliath, on both sides of the same frame)

A few views from some of the doors/windows:

(Theatre scene in Argentina -- way too long a name to both transcribing :-) )

They had one section that was set off for 100 works from Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Oceania. Seemed like a bit of short shrift to me. But, by the same token, the only photo that I took in that section was of this sculpture from Easter Island.

(Pandemonium)

(Liberty Leading the People)

(Napoleon on the Battlefield of Eylau)

(Athena)

(Venus de Milo)

(Sleeping hermaphrodite)

(Artemis)

(Augustus, Agrippina the Elder, and Hadrian)

The Crown Jewels of France were on display in this gallery.

A couple of the many paintings of notable nobles.

After several hours of wandering up and down this ENORMOUS museum, I was tired and hungry. I had one specific place I was trying to get to, and having a dickens of a time finding it, despite following the map what I thought was properly. 

Along the way, I wound up discovering still more spaces I hadn't yet been to. Just get me there already!

Finally, I crossed paths with someone who works in the museum who was able to point me to Angelina for lunch. As I was nearing the entrance, I discover YET ANOTHER space I hadn't been through, and which I knew I wanted to get to... later. I got into line, though positioned myself a little closer to the wall than if I had just continued growing the line in the same direction to block the hallway.

While standing in line, several people moved forward a few times, and one lady (three people in front of me) stood still, opening up a widening gap between her and the front of the line. I asked her, politely and in French (I think I phrased it correctly), to please move up. We wound up getting into a bit of a tiff about it, her thinking she's being polite to people who want to get through, me thinking that if she keeps it up much longer, someone will just go to the back of the broken line. She said she didn't care, so I moved there to make my point, and asking the couple who had been between us if they would like to move in front of me. (After all, they hadn't indicated they didn't care if I jumped the line.) Whether it was because of this, or because of simply seeing how the line had grown to block the hallway rather than hugging the wall, someone from the restaurant asked everyone to shift against the wall. We complied, at which point I returned to my former space. Yeah, when I get hungry and tired, I very easily get to my @$$hole state, which I can usually suppress reasonably well in public.

The Croque Monsieur definitely hit the spot. Well-fed and better rested, I went off to what I was figuring as the last set of galleries for the sculptures.

(Lion and Serpent)

(Joan of Arc Hearing Her Voices)

(Napoleon Awakening to Immortality)

(Emperor Napoleon -- a very imposing bust)

Eventually, I made my way to this sculpture. Based on the title, I know it's depicting Pheidippides. And, at that moment, I regretted the fact that I wasn't wearing my Marathon Pour Tous medal -- this would have been a great medal photo to get.

(The Soldier of Marathon Announcing Victory)

(Napoleon I in Triumph -- as always, sculptures of him are extremely imposing and intimidating)

(Mercury Fastening His Heel-Wings)

(Nicolas Poussin, and the drawing etched on that marble tablet)

(Victory -- no, not the Statue of Liberty, despite all of the similarities)

(Four Captives -- apparently they were likely the base of a large fountain that would have been mounted upon their shoulders)

(View of the main Pyramid from underneath)

I had asked for directions to a specific Metro stop to head off to Musee de la Shoah, and was expecting directions that took me upstairs out onto the street. Nope. Instead, they took me out through the entrance/exit that was on the lower level and through a huge underground mall area. I had NO IDEA that this existed. It was HOPPING!

I finally arrived at the Musee de la Shoah, not entirely sure what to expect. (Some Holocaust museums are rather sizable.) 

(The Names of the Righteous)

(Just a small sampling of the Wall of Names - there were a few more lengths of wall.)

Turns out that while there is an aspect of this location that is a museum oriented for visitors, it also has a decent amount of space that appeared set aside for research.

After my relatively brief visit here, it was off to the hotel to show and change for my dinner river cruise. Maybe even catch a quick nap. But I needed to get out early enough to make sure I found the precise location for getting the voucher to board the boat, since it was tricky enough to begin with, let alone with some of the Olympic items still in the way.

It took a little bit of extra effort, asking a few people how to get precisely where I knew I needed to go but couldn't see the openings, but I finally made it to the correct pier.

Of course, wouldn't you know it, the outing was canceled while I was still in the Louvre. I hadn't looked at my e-mail at all from the time I left my hotel room in the morning. Why would I?

Ugh. Great. What to do? Well, I made my way (in a roundabout way) back to the Metro line (since the exit I came out of does NOT serve as an entrance, too) and ultimately to my hotel room, both to cool down (I was sweating up my dress shirt a fair bit -- and, no, I didn't have enough extra clothing to change again) and figure out where I was going to have dinner.

I found a nearby Chinese buffet that was pretty decent, although annoyingly enough it was yet ANOTHER place that didn't have air conditioning, save for some amount of it in the immediate vicinity of the food.

Early night worked out fine, given that the next day -- my last full day in France -- was going to be a very long day at Disneyland Paris.