Day at the Louvre

With one of the world's great museums just minutes away, we had to pay a visit to the Louvre.  Our kids are tiring a little bit from antiquities, so we had to keep the visit interesting and not stay all day.  We chose to check out the Egyptian section, and also the paintings area that contains the Mona Lisa.

 

Laurel and Bryce outside the Louvre's famous pyramid

The Egyptian area was impressive.  We all enjoyed the Sphinxes, but our favorite place was the Dendera Zodiac - a stone carving for the roof of a temple - made in 50 BC - that mapped out the skies and illustrated the constellations as they were known at the time.  Many of our constellations were based upon the Egyptian renderings.  The coolest thing is that the engraving is dated by astronomers within one month, just by how the various planets and stars are positioned. The other sculptures were very cool too.

 

The Sphinx

 

The Cat Goddess Sekhmet

 

The Dendera Zodiac - a map of the heavens from 50 BC.

The Mona Lisa was also a big attraction. It seemed everyone wanted their photo to be taken with her.  In person, the Mona Lisa isn't that big, but by seeing it up close, you can appreciate the "smoky" coloring technique used by DaVinci and other artists at that time.

 

Everyone is paparazzi to Mona Lisa

Also notable in the same gallery was a painting re-enacting the coronation of Napoleon and his wife Josephine.  The work was commissioned by Napoleon, but was historically altered to be to his liking. The scene depicts Napoleon placing the queen's crown on Josephine, with 200 figures in the painting looking on (75 of whom have been identified). Also interesting is the image of Napoleon's mother watching happily, even though the record shows she disapproved of the ceremony and didn't actually attend.  I guess if you're Napoleon, you can get your royal painter to do whatever you like.