Day 8: The Louvre, France, Europe

Hey again! Sorry, I know you probably know already, but WE ARE IN PARIS! Yes, that’s right, PARIS. And not just that, we are standing right in front of the big glass pyramid, IN FRONT OF THE LOUVRE!

We have just had some photos taken of us standing in front of the glass pyramid. We also had a photo taken of the (human) family as well. But you have probably guessed that the Tour Guide came too and, instead of saying “Say cheese!”, he said “Say fromage!”,which none of the kids knew meant “cheese” ( to be honest, I didn’t either) so we weren’t exactly smiling - because we were trying to figure out what it meant!

Anyway, we are going through the entry now, after waiting absolutely forever (1 hour) in that queue, but- “Whoa! Check out all those paintings! There must be millions!” I say.

“Yes,” another voice says (which you have probably realised is the tour guide), “Did you know that there are about 35000 paintings in the Louvre? You can practically spend days in here and not see every one of them!”

We are looking at numerous amounts of paintings, and my favorite ones so far, is the Mona Lisa. I even get to have my picture taken in front of her! This seems to be the tour guides favorite landmark so far:

“ The Louvre is one of the eldest and greatest museums in the world, with possibly the best art collection in the world! Amongst the incredible and fascinating paintings is, as you saw before, the Mona Lisa, which is probably the most famous painting in the world. Works of famous artists can also be seen there, like Renoir Rembrandt, Rubens, Titian, Poussin, David, and, of course, Leonardo Da Vinci. The most famous pieces of work in the Louvre, are, the Venus de Milo, the winged victory, and, as I said before, the Mona Lisa.”

We have been here for about an hour now, and we have seen some amazing sights and learnt lots of interesting things. My favourite facts about the Mona Lisa are that there are actually three other versions of her (one of which show her hands clutching the chair), it has actually been stolen before by an employee who just wanted to return her to her original country (Italy), and that the glass in front of her is actually bullet-proof! 

Some other awesome works of art here are: the Venus de Milo, the winged victory and, another one of my favorites, which we just happen to be looking at right now, the Egyptian antique section. It has all sorts of exquisite items that (according to our guide) Napoleon's army brought back during the Egyptian Campaign (1798-1801). Now I love this sort of stuff! I can see lots of mini sphinx, some ancient mummy cases, heaps of statues and golden-plated statues, also loads of other ancient creepy stuff. Most of the antiques seem to have gold on them somewhere. I am completely relieved when the tour guide has to pop out to the loo while we are looking at this, because he would just drown us in facts.

We move on to Napoleon's rooms now. Apparently most rooms have been renewed into a museum space, but Napoleon's large luxurious apartment has stayed the same. The room we are in right now is one of Napoleon's salons. Unfortunately, the tour guide has returned, and I can still here him blabbering on and on about the history of the Louvre.

“ The Louvre was originally built as a fortress at the end of the thirteenth century, to protect the west of Paris. In the next century, Charles V turned it into a palace, but Francois I and Henri II transformed it into a real palace, but lower halls of the original fortress tower are under the Salle des Cariatides (room of the Caryatids) now.”

“Throughout his rule (1589-1610), King Henri IV added the Grande Galerie to the Louvre. More than a quarter of a mile long, and a hundred feet wide, this huge addition was constructed alongside the bank of the Seine River and at the time was the longest structure of its type in the world. King Henri IV invited hundreds of artists and craftsmen to live and work on the buildings lower floors. This custom continued for another two hundred years before it was ended by Napoleon.”

“ Later Leaders, like Louis XIV and Napoleon Bonaparte made improvements. In 1793, throughout the French Revolution, the Palace of Louvre was turned into the Museum of the Louvre. The newest major adjustments of the Louvre was the “Grand Louvre” project, under president Francois Mitterrand. This opened the north wing of the building, which had previously been turned into offices and covered over several small courtyards. As we saw before, one of the most amazing and spectacular wonders of it all is that glass pyramid designed by architect I.M. Pei that they added near the entrance of the palace. The expanded and developed was re-opened in 1989.”

Well, at least he got most of the history stuff out of the way; so most of the other facts should be a bit more understandable for me anyway.

Now we are on our way to the tour of the underground levels. This is the part I have been waiting for the whole trip, I just wish that tour guide would be quiet for at least this bit…

“Wow,” Is what pretty much all of us are saying, even the tour guide, “ Take a look at that!”

It’s a bit like an underground mine shaft or something. It is really dark, except for some small little lights along the pathway. I feel like an ancient soldier, hiding in this fortress, making sure none of the enemies reach the royals, or the rest of Paris.

I am awoken from my amazing daydream when the underground tour ends. I am a bit disappointed that it is over at first, but only until I realise that we ended the tour to stop for lunch. James and Fenella have brought some snacks, because they know that the cafeteria food is really expensive. So I have a banana (obviously), a ham and fromage (cheese) sandwich and a fromage croissant, which we had bought from the bakers shop beforehand.

Nearby, I can see a little girl in a pretty yellow dress holding a stuffed cow. But wait, is that, is that a bib? Yes it is!

As it turns out, the little girls mother has brought snacks to eat instead too, and they sit at the table next to us. Fenella and the girl’s mum start talking, as mothers do, so I decide to talk to that strange-looking cow.

“Hi,” I say, “My name is Paul, what’s yours?”

“Hello,” is says the cow, in a surprisingly 'Posh and, grown up' English accent, “My name is Cow-ey. Not that original, I know, but it is what Sarah (oh, that’s my owner) has called me since she was little. But you want to know what? My tag, you know, the tag, which says what shop you’re from, and how to be washed, well, it actually says that my name is Milky! And Sarah only realised that when she could read, which was when she was six and a half. Anyway, just call me Cow-ey.”

“Tag?” I say, “ Do I have a tag? Because if I do, I could find the shop I’m from and find my family!”

We find the tag (on my bum!) and take a look. But unfortunately all the writing is blurred. And we can’t make out even the trademark, because there is the name “Tianna” written in sharpie on it, from the time she took me along for a sleepover at a friend's house.

It is disappointing, but I don’t care because right now I am more interested in why Cow-ey is dressed like a baby, when he acts like an adult. So I ask him, and he says he doesn’t know why, he was just made like that and has to live looking like a baby even though he is an adult!

I ask Cow-ey for advice on finding my family, and he says he doesn’t know them and wouldn’t exactly know how to find them, but he did suggest that we look at some paintings together to see if we could find anything on stuff like monkeys, detectives, or orphans.

We do find one or two on detectives, and seven of orphans, but they don’t tell us anything about finding my family. Then just when I am about to give up on finding a monkey painting, Cow-ey whisper-shouts out “Paul! Paul, come over here, I have found a monkey painting!”

I skid over immediately to see the painting. “The Monkey Painter” is what the label reads. “But what kind of a clue is that?” I ask, a bit rudely to be honest. Cow-ey replies that he doesn’t know, unless some of my ancestors were famous painters or something like that. Still, it feels good to see that there actually is a painting of a monkey somewhere.

We spend a few more hours looking at incredible life like paintings.   I am amazed at how life-like paintings could be, some of them even look a bit like photo-shopped photos! There are also lots of completely abstract paintings, that are cool but seem to have no point at all. Yet the tour guide keeps going on and on about them. 

I find out that Cow-ey and his (human) family live in London, England, and have come here because Sarah’s father had an urgent business trip here. Since Sarah’s Dad wasn’t going to be around for most of it, Sarah and her mum decided to make it like their own little vacation instead, so they have come to see the Louvre after already visiting the Eiffel tower.

It is a bit hard to say good bye to my very interesting new friend, but Sarah’s mum and Fen and James decide to take us all to a restaurant to end the day first. And, like I have done with all my other new friends, Cow-ey and I decide to be pen pals.

Now, after a very, VERY long day at this amazing museum, we are in our hotel room, watching a family movie for a special treat before bed. I am exhausted, impressed, and a bit excited.  We are going to do a similar routine of this tomorrow as well, and I hope I learn a few more things about monkeys. But the next time I’ll be checking in, is when we will be in North America, and we should be in or near…(the one I have been waiting for)… DISNEY WORLD! But first I might just watch TV for a few more moments before going to sleep, just a few…