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Musée de Louvre: Pt 2

We came back to the Louvre! This time, Ally and I decided to hit the decorative arts section. We walked through briefly last time and knew it would be a good starting point today.

First, I got distracted by the French sculpture rooms. Listen, I love sculptures, and there were two rooms full of Greek-inspired sculptures made in France. I absolutely fell in love with this statue of Flora, the goddess of flowers. The veining of the marble on the tree stump reminds me of birch bark, and I love the details of the vines growing up the back.

We’ve seen a lot of incredible architecture around Paris, but I wish I could have seen this dragon in its original home, supporting the balcony of a Parisian mansion.

Eventually, we made our way up to the decorative arts section. Currently, there is an exhibition on couture fashion throughout this floor, connecting modern couture fashion pieces to their inspirations throughout history. While couture fashion is not typically for me, there were several gorgeous dresses on display.

Also on this floor are the Napoleon III apartments. These rooms are decorated as they would have been in the 1860s, when they were occupied by the Minister of State and his family. The interpretation of these rooms is very well done, and what I wish Versailles had been.

As we looped back to the exit, we ended up wandering through part of the Ancient Egyptian section. I really liked the carvings of food on this piece.

Overall, this was a very successful trip! Next time, we’re planning to see some paintings, and hopefully even the Mona Lisa.

Hot take: I didn’t care for the Cluny. Everyone else was talking about how it was the best museum, and it was so incredible, and while I did enjoy it, I thought it was just fine.

Medieval art is mildly interesting, but not really for me. I enjoy medieval art for the silly little guys and weird creatures they draw, and there was a severe lack of that here. It was focused heavily on medieval Catholicism. The stained glass was okay, but we’ve seen better elsewhere (church photo compilation coming soon). There were many reliquaries, including one that supposedly contained Jesus’s umbilical cord. “The Lady and The Unicorn” tapestries were gorgeous, but I disappointed myself by thinking we were going to see “The Unicorn Rests in a Garden” (which is in the Met, so that’s going on my list the next time I’m there).

Throughout the museum, there were contemporary art pieces created in response to or inspired by the medieval art. I think this is one of my favorite ways museums and artists can connect historical pieces to modern audiences. My favorite was, of course, this little guy, inspired by all the little creatures of medieval art, and representative of themes of dance and music.

Another artist had created a series of Magic: The Gathering cards inspired by different themes prevalent in the museum. While I don’t know much about Magic, outside of what I’ve picked up from my brother, it was still fun to see the influences of medieval art and history on modern games and how the two can be connected.

My favorite part of the museum was, unsurprisingly, not medieval at all. Part of the museum is built on the Ancient Roman baths from the early days of Paris’ settlement. It’s absolutely incredible to me that something that old has survived this long. I wish we could have seen more of the baths, but most of the areas were closed to the public.

Overall, it was a perfectly fine museum, especially if you do enjoy medieval catholic art.

As someone whose focus in HISP was museum studies and who plans to work in museums one day, my goal in Paris is to visit as many museums as I can over the next month and document them here. This will likely turn into something for my final class project, but I’m not sure what yet.

Of course, I was thrilled to start class off by going to the largest museum in the world, the Louvre!

For my first day at the Louvre, I prioritized my must-sees, aka the Ancient Greek section. Between my Percy Jackson and Animal Crossing obsessions, this was obviously the place to start. After wandering past several cool statues of Athena and taking a picture of the three graces for my partner, I finally found my first must-see piece, the Venus de Milo. I have to say though, I was a bit disppointed by her. She’s gorgeous don’t get me wrong but she didn’t stand out to me the way I hoped she would. I’m still incredibly grateful to see her in person though.

My favorite piece was Winged Victory of Samothrace. I absolutely adore her and she definitely lived up to my expectations. I’m planning to get a tattoo of a piece of art that resonates with me while on this trip and currently she’s my top contender. I love the symbolism of victory, as this trip for me is a celebration of finally graduating college and preparing to start an incredible job as a middle school librarian while working on my MLIS.

At this point, I was hungry, so we went in search of a cafe. Along the way we got distracted by the medieval foundation of the palace (I never thought I’d be this excited over tool marks in stone yet here we are), the French crown jewels, Ancient Greek jewelry, and plenty of gorgeous ceilings.

Unfortunately, for us these detours meant that the cafe had closed by the time we go there, so we had to leave the museum to find food. While this was the end of this trip, I will certainly be back again.

While this is the official blog I will be using for class, I will be posting more casually on my Tumblr blog, Kath-in-Paris.tumblr.com. I spent far too long formatting it, only for it to not be able to work for official class purposes, so I refuse to abandon it completely.

Hello! My name is Kath. I recently graduated from the University of Mary Washington, and this summer I will be spending a month studying abroad in Paris! As part of my class, I need to keep a blog, so I will be documenting my travels here. I’ve never been to Paris, but I’ve been dreaming about it since I was 10! I can’t wait to explore the city and visit as many museums as I can!