Louvre Museum

Paris for me is synonymous with Louvre Museum rather than the  Eiffel Tower or any other place.  I don't know who first told me about this Museum but it was one of the places which I wanted to visit.  This was before reading DA Vince Code by Dan Brown.  After reading it,  the urge to visit this Museum became more.

I was so  excited that I was to visit this great place on the last day 31st August 2012  of our trip.
We reached the Museum and bought the tickets.   It is a huge place and there are so many categories of exhibits and we are given a floor plan   which has  general information about the exhibits.
Today we did not take our usual packed lunch but just had pastries  and coffee when ever we felt hungry.

                                       The Famous Pyramid entrance to the Museum

From inside the pyramid the entrance to the Museum.

We moved from room to room and some times got confused and were going, again and again to the same place and it took some time for us to understand that we had seen this before!  It is so huge that it is impossible to see it in a single day and we had to sort of do  our tour quickly.
We knew we should not miss the famous 'Mona Lisa' by Leonardo DA Vince.
Now I will just post some pictures and it has been so tough to choose from the vast collection of pictures we have thanks to my hubby who  took them. How I wish I could visit this Museum again  and spend some days exploring this.

The sculpture is by Michael Angelo 

     

Ha the picture is turned,  but at last in front of The Lady Mona Lisa......

This one is opposite the famous lady, Vinayak told me not to miss this one by some other artist.

Coronation of Empress Josephine by Napoleon

There is a replica of this painting in the Versailles Palace and we had the opportunity to see that also. 

                                                                 A Painting I liked.

This famous winged Goddess Nike a Greek God is kept on the centre of huge steps leading to the next floor.

This one is also by DA Vince,  but not as famous as the Lady Mona Lisa..

This one is a famous  Greek Sculpture of Venus.

Egyptian Arts

In front of Hammurabi Code the original one.  I had read about this in my PG Course in History. The first ruler in the World to have  written codes of laws for  his subjects the forerunner for modern day laws and rules. Hammurabi was a King of Babylonian  Civilization.

There were many such Sculptures in a big Hall of multiple levels and we could just sit and relax there.

A Hall similar to the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles.  There were many such opulent rooms with lovely displays.

One of the crowns on displays some were made of diamonds. 

One of the many weaved Tapestry.

These are all dated in B.C.  There were many wooden colorful jewelleries too.

The mummified bodies were kept in such containers.

A Wooden Carving.

                                                     A marble sculpture

A Marble Sculpture by Michael Angelo.  I felt so happy just standing next to the work of the greatest artist.
I have read a book on Michael Angelo by Irving Stone    The Agony and the Ecstacy .   It is a fictional work about this great artist. Seeing this after reading the book made me feel I was very lucky to see this and  made me want to visit Florence his birthplace.

A bust of Alexander the Great and my husband is a great fan of him.

By  evening we had to  come out and we had seen considerable portions of the Huge Museum.

I had heard my niece mentioning about a place called Montmatre, Sacre'-Coeur and had asked us to visit this place.  I had not written it down and so I could not remember the name and did not know where to go as I was not aware what is to be seen there.  Luckily  when I was looking for some memorabilia in the shops near the  Eiffel Tower I saw a small replica of this Montmatre and it immediately rung the bell in my memory cells and I knew this was the place which my niece was mentioning.  So I immediately wrote down the name in a piece of paper. ( I did not buy that item).

Using the Internet we were able to know how to reach the place .

Instead of hanging  around Louvre we decided that we will go to this place and took the train to the place.

It turned out to be a big church  on top of a hill with many steps and it was very lovely.  So many people were there and some people were singing and dancing  and  I could see that it was the place to be in the evenings , especially for youth.  This place is also called Artist Village as many famous artists including Picasso used to sit here and draw pictures.

  The road from the station to the Montmatre was a narrow road full of small shops.

We were really happy that we did not miss out this place.

The Montmatre.

The view from the top of the hill

We returned to the hotel and the next morning we had to start back to Kuala Lumpur.  Next day  We checked out of hotel and came to the airport in a taxi.   

 My first European trip ended and it was a dream come true.

                         

Versailles Palace

We were to visit Palace of Versailles today the 30th August 2012.   The name of this palace immediately brings back the memory of a woman ,  who had a tragic end to her life,  Queen Marie Antoinette,  the  French queen who was guillotined in the blood bath of French Revolution. She  was the wife of King Louis XVI  who also was guillotined.
  She was supposed to be so callous about the common people  that she commented when she came to  know  people did not have bread  ' if bread is not available , eat cakes'.  No body knows whether she did say such words.

 We had to take a train (which is outside the zones to which we had ticket, so we had to buy the ticket) to Versailles which is  located in the outskirts of Paris.
It was a comfortable Double Decker train.

We had  tickets to enter the Palace which we had bought online earlier.
We walked to the Palace from the train station and it was not very far.  It was not  difficult to find the route as all the crowd was going towards the Palace and we had to just follow the crowd.

The Palace was huge and I had not  expected such  opulence.  Each State room and the Hall of Mirror and the paintings  and the carvings were simply marvellous.  It has been maintained very well.

The Entrance to the Palace.

The Huge Palace side view.

The Painting on the roof .

                                           Another Painting on the roof

                                                                   Roof again

                                                                  Hall of Mirrors.

                               

Tapestries hung on the Wall.

This Palace has a very Huge Gardens.  There is a trailer like Bus in which you can ride into the garden.  We had to buy extra tickets for this.  There were vehicles very similar to Golf carts which could be hired.  Four to five people could go in this(self driven).  Very well paved roads are there inside the gardens.  

There is another building (Palace) called the Grand Trianon inside the garden which is part of the whole Versailles Palace area.    This is a beautiful palace built by   Louis XIV. 

After French Revolution the whole Palace was shut down and some pilferage was there but luckily it was not destroyed or burnt down.

Later when Napoleon ruled France and declared himself as the Emperor.  After divorcing Josephine he married Marie Louise of Austria. (Austria was defeated by Napoleon  in the war).  She married him reluctantly and this Grand Trianon was refurbished for her. 

The pink marble pillars are wonderful. 

                                   The floor and the surroundings look so good.

State Room in Grand Trianon.

Another Room

The trailer like Bus to take you around the Garden and to the Trianon.

A Fountain inside the Huge Garden.

The Neatly laid Garden.

Another part of the lovely garden.

One of the many sculptures  in the Garden.

Another Fountain.

The Garden and the many Sculptures.

We got down from the Trailer where ever we wanted,   roamed about and took another one to go to another part as these trailers were moving around picking up people and dropping them.

We were in Versailles Garden till evening and started from there with great reluctance.   

It was a grandeur par excellence.

We come back and before going to the hotel room go and see the Eiffel Tower from the other side which we had not seen the other day.  We sat down there looking at the magnificent Tower and returned to our room.