I am quite frankly devastated.

I took a bunch of lovely photos with my phone but I cannot transfer them onto this blog, unfortunately.

The group met at 9 AM and we made our way to the Louvre and ultimately to the Musée du Louvre. I took photos of the glass pyramid and the lovely architecture of the older building.

Of course I also took an obligatory selfie (which might be a good thing I can’t add photos because my hair was really wild wow)

We went in through Pavillon Richelieu which not only reminds me of the Cardinal but growing up I only knew who he was because of Michael Palin from Monty Python. I took a photo of the doorway so the child in me can reminisce.

The first thing inside I photographed was a statue of Mercury, because I love mythology. Next I snapped one of the painted ceilings because  as I keep telling everyone (which is probably annoying by now) that I have been in Italy last year and this entire museum trip brought me back to Rome, Venezia, Milano and my primary stay was in Firenze.

Needless to say the painted ceiling was one of the many things that reminded me of how every day was a new lesson of Renaissance Italy only now everyday is Renaissance-19th Century France. It was not surprising to me that in the palace where the King lived there were extravagantly decorated rooms.

I couldn’t tell if the furniture in these luxurious rooms were fragile or extremely comfortable but I guess that depends on the time. We started in rooms covered in red walls and furniture and unfortunately every time I heard the word “Baroque” I could only think of my favorite Beauty and the Beast joke- “If it’s not Baroque, don’t fix it!”

This museum trip also reminded me of my mom and I can imagine she would have loved what we saw. I saw cute little sets of a small table with two chairs and I thought I heard my mom go “That’s what I want in front of the fireplace!” And of course her and I would agree that regardless of era we would envy the various fashions from all these historical women (when we got to early 19th century I dearly missed my Regency dress I have back home,it’s burgundy with a white sash)

Anyway we went through the different trends of home decor from the dark fabric’d walls to light Rococo designs. I had no idea where that style got it’s name, needless to say I was shell-shocked.

Seeing Marie Antoinette’sroom was no surprise by the way. It was light and feminine and exactly how I would picture her room.

Anyone familliar with  the Renaissance era knows that there are many references to Ancient Rome or Greece. Mostly from what I see of France and Italy usually any Gods depicted take the Roman form but I was pleasantly surprised that Valerie D’Apollon took Apollo’s Greek name. He’s my favorite God too!

Next on my slideshow I would have added is a hilarious train of Mona Lisa attempts. I have seen the Last Supper in Milano, I have even went to the town of Vinci- taking a class on Leonardo da Vinci in Florence last year brought me great opportunities. But I have never seen his most famous piece until today’s La Gioconda, La Madonna Lisa. The French call it La Jaconde and Anglophones call her Mona Lisa or Monna Lisa.

Was it worth the stampede? For me it was. I’ve written essayson Leonardo da Vinci, I’ve even displayed him from a video game (Assassin’s Creed II). I’m not saying I’m entitled to the painting I just thought that it was an obligation for me to finally see it. And it was hard…..

I have enjoyed every other piece as well. Learning all the stories were really interesting.

For lunch break, I immediately had to accommodate the needs of a certain organ I inherited genetically on the small side so I bit the bullet and coughed up a €1 coin for a toilet. Which cost me 15 minutes of valuable 1 hour we were allotted for lunch.

Since fast food in Europe is over all better I always like to try overrated chains at least one. Today was the day I tried McDo’s.

To wrap things up, after lunch we continued through the maze of the museum much like we did the entire day- we would stop at an important and amazing painting and go over the background and history of not only the specific artwork but also the artist themselves. I was very fascinated by all the knowledge I’ve accrued!