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Le Louvre
Most people don't realize that the Louvre was first a fortress and then a palace, but it eventually became a museum after the Revolution, when the collection royale became public. You can still see some of the foundational stones from the fortress age. But to give you a better idea of the monumental size of the Louvre, Emilie told us that if you were to spend one day looking through two rooms, it would take you three years to finish. What's even scarier is that only 10% of the museum's collection is on display. We spent most of our time in the French neoclassicism and early romanticism rooms, where we saw a lot of works by David, Ingrès, Gericault, and Delacroix. The sheer gargantuan size of their paintings was intimidating at times, but the largest painting in the entire museum is actually a piece by Veronèse called Les Noces de Cana, which sits opposite La Jaconde (the Mona Lisa).
Related journal entry:
le 8 janvier
Venus di Milo