The Louvre

Following our groups return from London, we took a much needed day of rest. Our feet were tired and weary, and I shudder to think of the miles we covered on foot over those past three days. Our weeks adventures were not over however, as the coming Sunday was the first Sunday of the month. On the first Sunday of the month, all of the museums in France are free to visit. So we decided this would be a good time for our first trip to Paris. We bought our tickets later that day and were ready to wake up bright and early for. he train to Paris.

Paris is only about an hour away from Lille by train, so the ride wasn't terribly long. When we arrived the weather was dreary and cold, as the snow dusted the sidewalks. It took us a few minutes to find a map and collect our bearings before we set off for the Louvre. After walking for probably 20 minutes, we arrived at the massive museum complex. The courtyard was full of people as the line for entry stretched around and well beyond the glass pyramid designed by I.M. Pei. Since entry we free the line moved fairly quickly. Once the group was inside, we got a lunch at the cafe and went our separate ways.

I began by visiting the old medieval foundation of the Louvre which was once part of castle that rested on the site long before the museum. After that i began visiting some the museum's vast collection of sculptures. The Greek and Roman sculptures were particularly impressive. Their astounding detail when capturing the human form is inspiring. In spite of all I had to see and enjoy, I had a problem; there was too much for me to see and enjoy. So I decided on a lens through which I could view the works of art. I would look for dogs. Yes dogs. There were a surprising number of dogs in both painting and sculpture. This little project gave me something to look for in each work of art; something to focus on.

We spent several hours exploring the massive museum. I lost roughly 30 minutes of exploring when the batter pack for my camera ran out and I had to find an outlet to recharge it. I recharged it just enough to get me through the rest of the day. Once we regrouped and left the museum, we headed to a cafe for dinner. After we finished dinner, we explored the city a little then headed for a metro station and rode that to Charled de Gaulle airport. The train station at CDG was our point of departure back to Lille. While waiting for our train to arrive, the schedule board alerted us that it would be over and hour and 15 minutes late! We couldn't wait that long, as we had class in the morning. So we managed to hop on a train to Brussels, which happened to be stopping in Lille on the way, Lucky. We got back to Lille tired, but content from our day long adventure.