Day 4: We Louvre Paris

Due to our late night from the Siene River Cruise, we had a slow morning and later start time, which was much appreciated as everyone is still not adjusted to the time change.

Prodan was off at the Embassy (Project "Emergency American Passport" was a success!), so the rest of us (spear-headed by acting group leaders Mr. Newton and Mrs. Williams) made our way with Bojan to the largest museum in the world, the Louvre.

(sorry for the sideways picture 🫣)

The Louvre was given to the people during the French Revolution and transformed into one of the most prestigious museums, packed with some of the most famous pieces of art in the world (whenever I show art to my students, it's almost always located in one of four locations: The Louvre, The Vatican, The British Museum or The Smithsonian). The Louvre was originally the Parisian home of the French kings, while Versailles was their estate in the country. 

It was a complete madhouse getting in, and a free-for-all (like the driving here in Paris!) for the entrance line, and keeping the group together was a challenge. But we pulled through! Everyone dispersed to explore once we entered the museum. 

While the hordes of people and VERY warm temperature (despite being cool outside) made for a more distracting experience, Mr. Prodan arrived with time to join us and explain some of his favorite neoclassical and romantic period art pieces to us. Here were a few notable sights for me:

(Lady Liberty depicted in this painting to commemorate the 1830's Revolution in France)

Perseus saving Andromeda from the sea monster (a Greek myth!)

(Again, sorry for the flipped pic, blogger won't let me change the orientation of vertical photos; my apologies! This is Oedipus with the Sphinx. Oedipus the King is the most famous ancient Greek play which I either tell my students about or teach them (if we have time), where Oedious unknowingly walks right into a prophecy that he's trying to avoid: murdering his father and marrying his mother (yikes!). The play is about him discovering what he's done, and this painting depicts Oedipus solving the Sphinx's riddle (she's terrorizing a city called Thebes, in Greece) and saving the city of Thebes by solving her riddle BEFORE the events depicted in the play. There are various versions of the Sphinx's riddle (see if you can solve it without Googling it!), and here's one version: what goes on four legs in the morning, two in the afternoon, and three in the evening?)

(Paris and Helen. Paris kidnapped Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world, angering her husband Menelaus; Menelaus built an army to get her back which kickstarted the Trojan War (which is the war Homer's Iliad takes place during).

(The Winged Victory (aka the Greek goddess Nike))

(Not a great pic, sorry, but this is the Apotheosis of Homer; Homer's two famous epics, The Iliad and The Odyssey are personified as women (one with the sword, Iliad, and one with a boat paddle, Odyssey).

Here are just a few more pics:

Yep, the Mona Lisa. It's that small, and that mobbed! Didn't even try to get close!

Then we met up again to try out the public transport in Paris. Metro, here we come! We walked a good distance to reach the station we wanted to enter, then a bit chaotically got tickets, then made our way through to Line 4 to get to Montmarte and Sacre Coeur. It was pretty packed, but everyone did marvelously getting on and off at the correct stop!

The church is on a large hill overlooking Paris, and we slowly made our way to the top, taking pictures as we went at the different levels. 

We finished the evening by walking around the cute Artists's Corner near Sacre Coeur at the top of Montmarte, which was lovely, and ended with dinner at a sweet little place in the upperstairs room with great ambience as we watched and listened to the hustle and bustle down on the street below.

Our last item was to take some pictures of the Eiffel Tower from close up, before calling it a night. All the timing getting from place to place has been taking longer due to the terrible traffic. Who knew it could feel comparable to LA! 😬

Lovely, isn't it?

Tomorrow we go to Switzerland, where we'll visit Zurich and the Rhine Falls!  Early morning and long day, so I'll post when I can.

Au Revoir, France!

~Ms. Carr