Doing the tourist thing

After going to Paris for a couple of times I finally did one of the most touristic things you can do. I visited the Louvre. As an arthistorian I should off course had visited it sooner but I've always thought that it seemed so big and that I really wanted to take my time visiting. But this time I thought I would make my first visit.

First of all, the architecture is amazing. We visited the part that was the apartment of Napoleon the third and I got so inspired. It is really interesting how every corner, no matter of it's importance, is heavily decorated with ornaments and paintings. That is why almost every photo is of architecture or furniture. The art, the paintings, sculptures and collections at the Louvre are of course immense and breathtaking. But, they don't do that well on photographs. You have to visit yourself. Take in the scale and grandeur, the small and intricate, feel the climate-controlled enviroment and smell the dust, people, gold and paint. I walked around recognizing paintings and artists that I only seen in books as if they were old friends. "Aha, so it's here you are."

At the end my eyes were tired and my brain overloaded. It sounds horrific to say that I just walked past the Mesopotamian and Babylonian collections and that I walked almost straight through a big hall were Giotto and Michelangelo were sharing the wall space. But the space was so big. As I thought, I will have to come back. Quite a few times that will say. To be able to take in, see and feel all of it. And I'm not complaining. 

Paris will forever own a little piece of my heart.