Day 2: The Louvre

I woke up this morning and decided that I need a good run to get things going, so I got myself together and headed out for a beautiful run along the river that runs through the city of Paris. The run was great, the weather was wonderful, and the scenery stunning. After returning, showering, and preparing for the day, our group took the metro to the Opera house that resides in Paris. The house is somewhat like a diamond in the ruff. Not to say that the buildings surrounding the house itself are not aesthetically pleasing, but the opera house is embellished with gold and tasteful architecture that stands out amongst the rest. After viewing the Opera house, our group headed towards the Louvre, which would be the highlight of our day trip. The Louvre itself used to be the residing place of many kings and queens of France, so it was naturally enormous. Today, it's one of the largest landmarks and museums in the entire world. Upon walking up the courtyard (a massive courtyard, I might add) to the Louvre one's eye is immediately caught by a beautiful glass pyramid that stands in between the walls of the Louvre itself. I had always been told that the Louvre was huge, ginormous, overwhelming, and mammoth-like, but I hadn't realized it until I saw it face-to-face. We walked into the Louvre and were immediately overwhelmed by the mere size of the place. We were each handed maps and told to "get lost" in the Louvre. Of course, my first thought was the Mona Lisa. However, after looking through the map, I realized that there were many other famous and recognizable works of art that I had seen before and even learned about in my life time, but never knew that they resided in the Louvre. Items like Antonio Canova's Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss, Venus de Milo (from 120 BC), Nike of Samothrace(winged Victory from 190 BC), and of course, the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. It's astonishing and overwhelming to realize that many of these sculptures are over 2,200 years old and are still standing! The Mona Lisa was naturally the highlight of everyone's trip to the Louvre. The painting itself is encased behind two sets of glass, which sits behind a wooden fence that keeps observers from getting too close. It's not as big as I had thought, but it was nice to look at. After seeing these, we headed to the top floor to view some French paintings which were also nice to look at. In all, one could spend a lifetime in the Louvre and not see everything! After this, we headed back to the Opera district where we had originally started and strolled through some various and expensive department stores in the area. Paris is gorgeous, wonderful, and full of culture, history, and great food!