The Louvre and Versailles

Saturday, July 28.  Our last day in Paris and we have such a full day planned!  First the the Muse de Louvre,  the most visited art museum in the world, averaging 15,000 visitors per day, is also an historic monument.  Housed in the Louvre Palace, which was a fortress built in the 12th century as home for Louise XIV, the Louvre is home to over 35,000 pieces of art from the prehistoric period to the 19th century and covers 652,300 square feet of space.  In 1683 Louis XIV moved to his country home, The Palace of Versailles.  More about her later....

The museum is housed in the Louvre (Palais du Louvre) which began as a fortress built in the late 12th century under Philip II.  Remnants of the fortress are visible in the basement of the museum. The building was extended many times to form the present Louvre Palace. In 1682, Louis XIV chose the Palace of Versailles for his household, leaving the Louvre primarily as a place to display the royal collection.  The Louvre was expanded and renovated several times before in 1874, especially under Napoleon, when it is temporarily renamed the Musee Napoleon.  After the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo, it again became The Musée du Louvre . 

The collection are divided into eight curatorial departments:  Egyptian Antiquities; Near Eastern Antiquities; Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities; Islamic Art; Sculpture; Decorative Arts; Paintings; Prints and Drawings. In our short visit to this wonderful museum we only saw a few of the masterpieces: The Venus de Milo, an ancient Greek sculpture created between 130 and 100 BC, is also know as Aphrodite; and the Mona Lisa, a portrait of a young woman whose identity has been debated for centuries, painted in 1503 by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci, is acclaimed as the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, and the most parodied work of art in the world, are two of my favorite museum pieces. Oh for more time in the Louvre..........

Exterior of Musée du Louvre with I. M. Pei's Glass Pyramid completed in 1989

Gawking at the Mona Lisa

On to Versailles.  The Palace of Versailles is a royal chateau built 16 miles from Paris.  The court of Versailles was the center of political power from 1682, when Louis XIV moved from Paris until the beginning of the French Revolution in 1789 when the royal family had to leave Versailles and return to Paris as a result of the Women's March on Versailles or October March which was one of the earliest and most significant moments of the Revolution.  The construction of the Palace of Versailles began in 1624 as a hunting lodge for Louis XIII, and continued until after Louis XVI.  The Hall of Mirrors, the most celebrated room in the Palace, the Chapels of Versailles, the Queens Bedchamber with its hidden door through which Marie Antoinette escaped in 1789,  and the magnificant formal gardens of Versailles which represent one of the finest extant examples of "Garden a la Francaise" are among the few highlights of this great palace. 

Hall of Mirrors, Palace of Versailles

Gardens of Versailles

We returned to Paris and began the packing for our Sunday departure.....A demain.......