Day 12 cont'd: Louvre

We continued towards the Louvre, stopping at the Jardin des Tuileries (Tuileries Gardens - which were also closed due to a strike, but we were able to peek through the fence):

In this picture you can see the Eiffel Tower in the distance:

Then we arrived at the Louvre (click for web site), which is of course the largest art museum in the world.  It has been an art museum since about 1800, and the striking contrast of glass pyramids designed by I. M. Pei was added in 1989.  The large pyramid is now the entrance to the museum.  Isako really didn't like the pyramids...  By themselves they were nice, but they ruined the scene for her when seen in combination with something that was built in the 1400s.

One fact I found interesting about the museum - because it's so big, it can be a real maze.  But what makes it even worse is that on certain days of the week, certain wings of the museum are closed.  The reason for this is what I found amazing - the note on the museum map says, "Due to a lack of staff, the Lourvre museum cannot maintain all of its rooms permanently open.  A week-by-week schedule specifies which collections are open or closed on each day of the week."  I found this to be mind-boggling, that the greatest art museum in the world has close some areas every day just because they don't have enough staff.  You would think they could raise the admission prices a little and hire more people.  (Isako suspects it's partially driven by a marketing ploy to force people to come back to see those "closed sections".)

Going inside, here is the main entrance hall, below the large pyramid:

Particularly since the museum generally wasn't that crowded, it was somewhat amusing to see the large group of people gawking at and taking pictures of the Venus de Milo:

Isako thought it was amazing that picture-taking was not forbidden in the museum!  In fact, flash photography was "strongly discouraged" but not forbidden either.

Of course I had to take this picture (it actually came out pretty well through the glass case, and just using my camera's built-in flash):

And once again it was kind of funny to see so many people gathered in one place, when so much of the rest of the museum was virtually empty:

I thought the next two pictures came out nicely.  I love taking pictures like this, long exposures using natural lighting in the evening, but of course you normally can't do it without a tripod, and I didn't bring one on this trip.  Luckily there was a wall with a flat top in just the right place for me to take advantage of.  I really need to buy a tripod that's small and light enough to travel with.

The next two pictures were taken in an area that is kept furnished in the original style from when Napoleon III was living there.  Lots of very ornate chandeliers.  Unfortunately, many were not lighted, and the rooms too dark to even attempt taking photos in.