Today, I visited the largest art museum in the world, visited the 2nd tallest structure in France, and slept for less than five hours.
For some bizarre reason, I remain the only member of the family who has yet to acclimate to the time change, meaning I wake up at approximately 3:00 AM every day.
Since I’m sure you care more about our travel experiences than my sleeping habits, I’ll move on to Musee de Louvre. Formerly the home of the French royal family, the enormous structure currently houses thousands of works of art across three wings (notably, the visitors’ center is enclosed under a giant glass pyramid!) Some of the highlights of our private tour include:
the Great Sphinx, which is one of the best-preserved Egyptian artifacts in the world.
Venus di Milo, an original Greek sculpture from over 2,000 years ago which combines the Hellenistic and Classical styles of Ancient Greek art.
Winged Victory, another original Greek sculpture.
Renaissance art, including this painting by Descartes…
and this slightly better-known work.
The Grand Salon, from the era of Napoleon III and used by the French Prime Minister during the Napoleon dynasty.
Napoleon I’s throne.
After visiting the Louvre, we ate pizza at an Italian restaurant before taking the Metro to the Eiffel Tower.
Completed in 1898 for the Paris World’s Fair, the wrought-iron structure is 324 metres tall, houses three observation decks, and was the tallest structure in the world for 41 years. We ascended only to the second level (located about halfway up the tower.)
A general sampling of the view.
After that, we rode the Metro home, ate dinner, and went to sleep.
Due to several unprecedented technical problems, I had to publish this post a few days after the events actually happened. First, our power converter broke, and then somebody forgot our camera’s data transfer cable. (I’m not telling anybody who it was that made that mistake.)
- Hayden M. Strong
(The Louvre features a pyramid. The Eiffel Tower is also vaguely triangle-shaped. This can mean only one thing…)
Illuminati Confirmed!
