Adventures in Italy: The Louvre

They say that if you wanted to see every piece of art in the Louvre, you would have to stay for 3 months. After spending some time in the Louvre, I would say that this is a fairly accurate estimation. The medieval castle turned museum was near the top of our to do list, and in the midst of a cold and rainy Parisian afternoon, it was more inviting than ever.

A view of the Louvre, inside the Louvre.

The original foundation of the Louvre.

I had the opportunity to take a seminar dedicated to writing poetry based on works of art. Our professor, who was a poet himself, lead us through a brief history of art, and mentored us as we attempted to write poems of our own. The class gave me a great appreciation for art, and it was wonderful to see some of the works that inspired my attempts at poetry. Even more interesting is that of the 12 people in that seminar, 4 of us were studying in Italy together. Those people were some of the first people I met at Furman, and to think that we would all be studying abroad together is pretty incredible.

The main entrance to the Louvre of course, is the famous pyramid. Passing up the “touching the tip of the pyramid” shot, we hurried into the door, along with every other tourist in Paris. Luckily the Louvre is colossal, so the mass of humanity that was funneled through the main entrance quickly dispersed into the various wings of the Louvre. We entered the Louvre knowing that we would likely be returning in a few days to see some of the exhibits we missed the first time around. I am very thankful that our schedule allowed this, because it took us about half the afternoon to figure out the floor plan :) On our first visit, we hit up the “must sees” including the Mona Lisa. I was thrilled to find that the Mona Lisa was larger than I thought it would be. I was expecting a hoard of people swarming around an 8 ½ by 11 portrait, but it's a pretty good sized painting!

A photograph from a traveling exhibit.

Another photo from the same exhibit.

I think another reason why I found the Louvre so enjoyable is that I had the privilege of going with a wonderful group of fellow art admirers. It was wonderful to be with a group of friends who will laugh when you can't find your way out of the Egyptian exhibit, come up with creative artistic interpretations of famous works of art, and pose with you as you imitate all the famous sculptures.