raison d'être

So, as you are all aware, the whole reason we went on this trip was to see the Mona Lisa. No really, didn't we tell you that?

So, you'll be relieved to know: Mission accomplished (just like in Iraq!)


I was able to get within about 20 feet of the picture, and indeed, it is a really cool painting. I guess.

My advice to anyone going to the Louvre is: look up and look down. Everyone one else is looking ahead and missing things like this:

Looking up:
Pretty much every salon had a ceiling that looked like this.




Looking down:
At the base of one of the statues, there was a mosaic of butterflies. Here is a little montage of several followed by a close up on one of the tiles.




There was some really interesting history about these but it was in French, so I have no idea what it meant :)

Just plain looking:
This was a recent (2007) installation. It is about 40 feet tall at the end of a stairway. I sat here for a long time. 90% of the people passing through the stairwell completely missed it.


Here is a close up of the man:

The conclusion that the four boys came to (we did the Louvre while Lisa and Audrey hit the Marais) was that most museums would be pretty much empty if it wasn't for Jesus and Hercules. So imagine my surprise when I stumbled onto the following stained glass window:


Yet another homage to the Passion? Hardly! It is the Celebration of Science and Art! Sacre bleu!