This article first appeared in My Travelogue by Bhushavali
Here's the prologue - I'm an art history enthusiast. Art history was one of my favourite subjects at university (National Institute of Fashion Technology, India). I need time with art. When I was living in London, it took 2 days for me to see the National Gallery of London! When I went of a day-trip to Amsterdam, I chose to skip Rijksmuseum because it just wouldn't do any justice to try to see a fine-arts museum within a few hours. That's me! I need time to see & appreciate historic art! I can't just stroll through a fine-arts museum! So yeah, I've been to Paris a couple of times but never long enough to dedicate 'atleast' an entire day to Louvre, so I've always chosen to skip Louvre than to rush through it!
Over to the main story - Last summer, my in-laws visited us and ofcourse we went to Paris for a 2-day trip and luckily it was the first weekend of the month. Here's the thing - first Saturday of each month, in the evenings, Louvre museum's admission is free and meeting 'Monalisa' is technically a 'top thing to do in Paris'!!!!!! So, off we went....
Second is about the major displays to see. It is pointless to wander around in Louvre museum if you're there for hardly few hours. The museum has 3,80,000 exhibits which means it would take 791 days if you spend just 1 minute in front of each exhibit for 8hrs a day!!!!! So yeah, with hardly a couple hours, I made a list of 5 exhibits to see and we saw those and we were out!!!!
Left pic Courtesy: Lyokoï88, own work via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0
3. Winged Victory (Nike of Samothrace) - There are only few original Greek sculptures still existing (several 'Greek' sculptures are a copy made by Romans)! This was found in the island of Samothrace. This was probably sculpted in 250 BCE. This was another sculpture that fascinated me as a student! The fabric of her clothing... looks like fabric..... but its made of marble..... esp., the way it drapes around her knee and bellows behind her in the wind - I needed someone to promise me it was marble and not fabric!!!!!
Also read my blogposts about - Laocoon & His Sons; Botticelli's Birth of Venus; Michelangelo's David, Madonna of BruggeHere's a tip: It gets super duper crowded during the free admission, which opens at 6pm. Head to the Carousel entrance by 5:15-30ish. Its open till 9:45pm, which would give you a couple hours to explore. All these 5 are located relatively closer to each other in the same wing, but in different floors. So its relatively easy to see them quickly! But, do remember, with the crowd its actually difficult to move fast. We did go there with elderly people and a baby, so it wasn't too practical for us to stay till 9:30! Consider leaving the morning a bit relaxed so you have some energy left for Louvre - don't you see how dead tired I look in these pics?