Always fancied a trip to The Louvre in Paris and not going to get the chance ?

I was there in the summer of 2014. Overwhelming. And crowded.

What I thought was interesting was seeing a small group (3 or 4) of blind folks leaving as we were arriving. Never understood why a blind person would want to visit the Louvre....
 
I was there in the summer of 2014. Overwhelming. And crowded.

What I thought was interesting was seeing a small group (3 or 4) of blind folks leaving as we were arriving. Never understood why a blind person would want to visit the Louvre....
yes I agree.. always very crowded, not for me, I'd rather just visit the National Gallery on home turf..
 

I went in 1967. We did have to get in line to see the Mona Lisa, but otherwise, not too crowded. I had a couple of paintings I HAD to see, so it took some time to find them.

I remember we had to wear little baggies on our shoes as the floors had been freshly refinished.
Yes - big crowd around what they called Monna Lisa
 
Yes - big crowd around what they called Monna Lisa
or even Mona Lisa... or La Gioconda ;)

In reality this is how it looks...

Mona-Lisa-Crowded-copy.jpg
 
It wasn't quite that bad when I was there, but I did have to muscle my way to the front of the crowd to get a close up picture, which I haven't looked since then...
 
I was there in 2019, I was super surprised that I didn't like the paintings. Learned that my taste is for peaceful pastoral scenes and seemed like all the paintings I saw at the Louvre were dark and gory murderous war-like compositions, or just dark depressing scenes. There was one floor/wing closed for renovations so maybe that area would have had the type of paintings I like.
There was one little sculpture I liked a lot and wish I'd taken a picture, it was a shiny gold horse (small table decor size) with a silver woman rider that was not trying to kill anyone. Next to it was a companion piece of a shiny gold horse with a silver man rider who was wielding a weapon, sighhhhhh. There was also a beautiful crystal carriage (is carriage the right word? I mean the sort of conveyance that Cinderella went to the ball in).
 
or even Mona Lisa... or La Gioconda ;)

In reality this is how it looks...

Mona-Lisa-Crowded-copy.jpg
That crowd looks even worse than when my wife and I drove over to Atlanta to see Girl with a Pearl. It was on loan for a brief period, later the room only had about six people in it so we got a good look at it.
Overhearing some of the discussion was as interesting as the painting. Men in particular were wondering what she was thinking. I would imagine that people looking at the Mona Lisa were reacting the same way.
 
When I was in the USAF, stationed in Germany, during the early/mid '60's, I often went to Paris to visit the sights. I spent several days, over the years, at the Louvre, and enjoyed it. Back then, most of the tourist sites weren't anywhere near as crowded as the pictures in this topic show.
 
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