Last day in Paris and I made sure I didn't get stuck in a major queue to visit the Louvre this time. I read that the majority of visitors try to enter through the glass pyramid outside when there is a perfectly good underground entrance accessible via the train station. So I went that route, bought a ticket at the newsagents on the way, and there was less than fifty people ahead of me in the line for security when I arrived. Once the museum opened it was straight through security, pick up a map and through the entrance to the museum.
I tried to quickly make sense of the map, which is confusing because there is four levels and three different wings, and keep moving to try and beat the queue to the Mona Lisa. I made it there with only a small crowd, checked it out and got some photos and then moved on. Despite all the signs saying no flash photography, people still seemed to either 1) not see it 2) ignore it or 3) get really confused when overhearing that it was not allowed, "what!? no flash photography? what!?". I already knew the painting was going to be small, and it was indeed very small. Not sure what the big deal is.
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| So that's what the bottom half of a pyramid looks like. |
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| That red spot is either a laser pointer or an idiot with flash turned on. |
The next most famous piece I knew of was the Venus de Milo. Everyone must have still been looking for the Mona Lisa because there was only two people there when I found it. Again I'm not really sure why this is so more important than all of the other similar pieces nearby. The map also had a bunch of other "highlights" marked out, so I tried to find most of them as well as checking out whatever I came across along the way. I spent about two hours there all up, but if you were to actually see everything and read all the descriptions, you could easily spend a couple of days.
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| The gummi Venus de Milo was more impressive. |
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| Now it gets more difficult, The Wedding Feast at Cana. |
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| The Large Sphinx. |
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| Nothing special, it just reminded me of an episode of Lost. |
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| An easier one, Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss. |
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| The Cheat with the Ace of Diamonds. |
Had some time to spare so I took a route past the Colonne Vendome (Column Vendome) and Jardin des Plantes (Garden Of Plants). Final adventure for the day was to take a train out to the Roland Garros tennis park. It wasn't very well marked coming out of the station, but I eventually found my way to the entrance. They have the worst priced gift shop I have ever seen, a museum gallery that didn't sound too exciting but I decided I might as well sign up for the daily English tour that was about to start. The tour guide was pretty bad, he'd talk for a bit, give noone a chance to take photos then move on to the next location. So I just went to the front on the group and took photos while he was talking. Got to see some of the interview and media rooms inside the main court, players entrance, change rooms and then walk around the side of the main court. A nice change from all of the soccer stadiums.
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| Colonne Vendome. |
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| Entrance to the Jardin des Plantes. |
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| The second feature court at Roland Garros. |
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| The interview room. |
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| The main court, that goes unused 50 weeks of the year. |
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