The Louvre

The Winged Victory of Samothrace, also called the Nike of Samothrace, is a 2nd century BC marble sculpture of the Greek goddess Nike

One of my favorites is the Winged Victory sculpture. I love the flow and the strength of it. It sits on the landing at the top of the stairs.

The Louvre is a HUGE museum to say the least. Three wings and three floors of nothing but art. We took the metro and arrived through the underground entrance. We skipped any long lines that were above ground. We bought our tickets from a Kiosk and it was very easy. The underground area is impressive. There are beautiful stores, a food court, restrooms and then you get to the section underneath the pyramid were you buy your tickets and enter the museum.

We went on a Wednesday and it wasn't too crowded. The Louvre also stays open late on Wednesdays so that might be why also. Everyone didn't feel as it they had to get up early and see the museum. We picked up a self-guide map and headed for Napolean's Apartments. I wish we would have gotten the audio guide, but for some reason we chose to skip it. This was our last day in Paris and I think everyone was anxious to get going in the museum and just didn't want to take the time to get the guides. If you go, make sure you get them because it helps to know just what you are looking at. We thought there would be a lot of English signs explaining, but there wasn't. If you read French, you'll be alright without one.

These apartments were so amazing. The opulence, the lavish style and the size of the rooms were very impressive. The Louvre was a palace before it was a museum, but I'm not sure if his apartments were there at the same time as the museum.

Incredible detail in the plaster and wood work. Beautiful chandeliers filled the rooms with golden light.

You had to remember to look up as well as along the walls because every ceiling was different and offered it's own version of beauty.

Venus de Milo

We got our map and decided that the Louvre was so big that there was no way to see it all. We opted to see the highlights. Because the highlights were spread throughout the museum, and we got lost several times, I think we saw just about all of the museum. The map to the museum seemed so straight forward and easy to follow. I found it to be a nightmare. We saw so many great works of art as we were whizzing by to get to our next destination on the map. Many times we would end up at a dead end and have to turn around and go back the way we came. As you are about to see, the sculptures were my favorite.

I'm not sure what this one is called, but I liked it. My kids got a huge kick out of it, because I liked a sculpture of little kid strangling a duck.

As mentioned previously, this is one of my favorite sculptures, "Psyche revived by Cupid's kiss"

In the Mesopotamian (I bet you haven't heard that word since 7th grade) art, we found this cute little lion. He reminded us of our dog Daisy and we fell in love.

Delaney loved this brick mosaic of the lion. I pretended to ask the attendant, "How much for this?" and the girls loved it, they were cracking up!

At this point, HH needed to take a little break from all the walking and give his mind a little rest. We had been there for HOURS.

Of course, we had to see the most famous of all, just to say we did. I don't really see the appeal of it, but there you go. That's the great thing about art, it is subjective and what moves one doesn't necessarily move another.

The Three Graces

We continued on throughout the museum, stopping to look at great paintings along the way. The paintings were getting much more attention than the sculptures and there were small crowds that you had to push your way through to get a good look. I think that is why I don't have very many pictures of them.

I wish the Louvre was here, I would go at least once a week and tackle it section by section.

Have a great weekend!

Bicycle in Obidos, Portugal

Salvidor Dali, Sacre Coeur, Arc de Triumph

When we woke up on Tuesday, it was raining. Raining hard. Delaney felt sick and did not want to go anywhere. So we sent Greg and Alyssa on their way to Montmarte to see the Salvador Dali Museum and we would check back with them later. We then all went back to sleep. Around 4pm, we all met up again and headed out to Montmarte.

Many, many stairs. Too many to climb. We took the funicular (a.k.a. the Turduckin, family joke) up to the Church (our Paris Visite metro tickets worked for the funicular.). We saw some guys using these stairs for exercise: running, crawling up backwards on their hands and knees and one staircase from the top, one guy told the other guy to carry him as he RAN up the stairs!

Always the Drama Queen! Secret's out, she didn't really have to walk up all those stairs, but nice try.

This is Sacre Coeur. HH thought it was the most beautiful church he has ever been inside. They had a strict no picture taking policy inside. We saw the guard kick out a couple of girls for taking pictures then accuse another girl. Her mom told him she didn't take any pictures and he made the girl show him the pictures on her camera to prove it. He let her stay. He meant business. This church sits atop a big hill and has a wonderful view of the city.

In front of the church, there is this little park like setting and you can take a meandering path up instead of walking straight up in those stairs shown above.

One metro stop down was Pigalle, the home of Moulin Rouge, so we went. Don't bother! It is in a neighborhood filled with sex and porno shops. It is quite a let down when you finally arrive. NO BIG DEAL! I felt gross walking down that street.

We had some dinner and then headed over to The Arc de Triumphe to watch the sunset. When we arrived we discovered that there was over 200 steps to the top and everyone felt too tired to go up. So we just hung out at the bottom, watched people and enjoyed the sunset. They were flying this flag over the tomb of the unknown soldier.

For all of you who have never been to Paris, let me give you a little tip. Do not try to cross this big, heavily trafficked road. There are stairs that will take you to an underground tunnel and take you straight to the arc. We saw mom's with children trying to cross. The stairs are not marked very well but they are there!

Disneyland - Part 2

This is Adventure Land and what I believed to be the most different of all. Nothing looked the same. Instead of rafts taking you to an island, there were suspension bridges connecting everywhere. It was great, better than ours. Skull island was right next to the big ship that Captain Hook and Peter Pan occupy (not shown due to refurbishing). Then you cross into the Pirates of the Caribbean area. This ride looked like an old stone fort that you see on the Caribbean islands. I really liked it.

Again their ride was similar to ours but different. It was not in the same order, it was shorter and it didn't have the lavish treasure room. But it did have a cool cave area.

Over by The Haunted Mansion was Thunder Mountain Railroad and the Paddle Wheel Boat. This picture is taken from the Haunted Mansion balcony. In this area they had a Wild West Cemetery and an arch like in Arches National Park.

The Haunted Mansion looks totally different on the outside. Inside, it starts out kinda like ours, but once it gets to the graveyard area, it is all wild west ghost town stuff. To us, it felt really bizarre. We like ours better.

It was not crowded and the weather was great. We had a great time.

Disneyland Paris - Part 1

On Monday, we set out for Disneyland Paris. I really fought for this, The Handsome Husband did not want to "waste" time seeing Disneyland in Paris, after all, we have the original 20 minutes from home. BUT, I insisted. I bought the tickets at home so we would be sure to go. No putting it off, the tickets had been bought. Hot tip: Buy tickets here with your US Dollars. I saved about $33.00 per person by doing that.

We were immediately impressed with how beautiful the landscaping was. Wide avenues and open landscaped spaces were everywhere.

We noticed it was similar but different to the original Disneyland. We all had a very excited feeling. It was like seeing Disneyland for the first time. You didn't know what to expect.

The castle was very pretty. Under the castle they had a Dragon's Lair. A big Dragon laying in the rocks and water with steam coming out of his nose. He would move and it was fantastic.

Love this little train and the big pine trees.

Great topiary. This was in storybook land too. We have a lot of fantastic topiaries outside of It's a Small World and they don't have any.

In Storybook land there were a lot of topiaries and waterfalls. Here is the entrance to the tea cups. It is covered and big lanterns hang over the tea cups. FUN!

Space Mountain was everyone's favorite ride. It was so different than ours. It takes place in the same shaped building and it is dark inside, but it goes so FAST. On take off, I totally felt my spine compress. There is a corkscrew and a loop inside. I felt as if I was going to throw up at the end, but I had no lasting nauseous feeling when it was over. Also, for some reason, I was staggering after I got off. But that is me, not a huge rollercoaster fan. The kids and the Handsome Husband LOVED it. Favorite ride hands down. They even said better than original. Unfortunately, HH lost his iphone on this ride. Gone forever, no insurance. Bummer.

Totally different entrance to adventure land. It was really cool, with large spaces of desert. This is were Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is located.

This is the Indiana Jones ride. It was a huge disappointment. As you can see, it is totally different than the original in Anaheim. Ours is inside and it tells a story and you are on an adventure. This is just a pathetic rollercoaster. Everyone was hugely disappointed.

Even though we liked the landscaping and look of Disneyland Paris, we like the rides (we have more and better) and the maintenance practices better at our Disney. For example, on Peter Pan, the ship you were flying in made a terrible squeaking noise and as we were flying over the city, part of the wall was missing and you could see a broom and mop. That would NEVER happen at Disney in Anaheim. They would close the ride. Also, a big crane was working on the castle during the day. Stuff like that is done at night at the original Disneyland.

HH admitted that he was glad we came. He was really excited once we entered and had a great time.

One bad thing, they allow smoking. UGH! Fortunately, we didn't run into it too much, mostly when people were waiting for their family members at the end of a ride.