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Today I went to the Louvre.

So since I don't start semester courses until tomorrow I had the entire weekend to myself (as you've probably figured out from other posts). I had planned on going to two other museums, but one was closed for some unstated reason and the other is closed on Mondays. Europe is a strange place where businesses are closed before sundown (if they're ever open at all), and where museums close. How businesses make money on this continent is still beyond me. Moving past my rant, I had to find a backup place to go today considering that my other options fell through. It turns out that the Louvre is open on Mondays, so I went there.

It's the Louvre, so I knew that if I didn't get there by 9am when it opens that the line would grow to monsterous proportions. I woke up at 8 and was on the train by five minutes to 9. I arrived at the Palais-Rivoli/Musée du Louvre station, and found my way to the line that had already formed. It was bigger than I expected, but it was reasonable nonetheless. I went through security, and then saw that you get your tickets from automated machines instead of from a person at a window. I didn't want to risk going to the machine (and waiting in the huge line), and not being able to get my rightfully deserved free ticket. I went to the information desk, and was told to just walk right in. Twelve euros saved.

I know the drill. At this point in the post you want me to ooo and ahhh about the Louvre and how amazing it is and how you MUST go when you're in Paris. Well you got that one wrong. I do think that you should go to the Louvre, but it's not a must in your life. There will be no heee hawing in this post about the amazing collection of the Louvre (especially not about that damned Mona Lisa that everyone loves). I will comment on a few other points.

I go to museums to see paintings. I'm a paintings kind of a girl. I did appreciate seeing a few da Vinci paintings. I did really like their selection of Spanish art, and their Italian painting selection was fantastic…but. Most of the Louvre's exhibits are more archaeological than fine art based. At least during my visit, there were more bronze figurines than Picassos (in fact, I didn't see any Impressionist paintings anywhere). I did like seeing all of the Greek and Roman pottery and sculpture, and their selection of African, Oceanic, and American art was nice, but that's not what I go to museums for. I was a little disappointed. However, I did like their selection of art objects especially the Marie Antoinette items and religious pieces.



For some reason today my coffee must have had some kind of magical drugs in it because they tourists didn't bother me at all. I didn't mind watching hoards of them all staring at what looked like gameboys while not actually looking at art at all. I didn't care that there were hoards of guided tour groups that I had to squeeze past and that stood in mass in front of paintings. I was all zen. I did find it funny when one Chinese tourist tripped over a barrier rope because she was too busy snapping photographs.

I've made you read all of that to get to my real takeaway for the day--the lack of security in museums. You just read about this topic yesterday, but it was taken to whole new levels today. For one, I saw a man touch a tapistry. I saw him do it, and stood with my mouth agape. He saw me staring at him and did not look guilty at all, but fast walked in the other direction. Also, there were innumerable rooms with no security at all. For the first time in my European museum life I took advantage of this fact. As I said before, I got to the museum at a little after nine. By this time it was almost two, and I hadn't eaten anything since eight and had been walking a marathon. I was starving.

We did have to go through a security checkpoint, but it was simply to x-ray our bags. As per usual I had stashed a bag of chips in my purse. At about two I was thinking about finding somewhere to sit down and have my chips, but I couldn't find anywhere to go. I got to some kind of exhibit about Medieval art (there were a lot of them), and I just couldn't contain myself anymore. The room was empty, and there was no security, so I opened the bag of chips in my purse and started eating them. I walked from empty room to empty room eating the chips out of my purse, and putting my hand over the top of my bag when someone was in the room. I finished my snack in the Greek pottery room. Shameless.

I did manage to see the entire museum today, and feel no need to go back (unless there really is a painting display that I didn't get to see).

I came home, and have been bedridden ever since (there was a lot of walking today; give me a break). I have class at 8:30am tomorrow so it's time to hit the sack.