Boon's London/Paris/Amsterdam Trip (Oct 2014): Day 5

LOUVRE MUSEUM

Wiki: " The Louvre or the Louvre Museum (French: Musée du Louvre, pronounced: [myze dy luvʁ]) is one of the world's largestmuseums and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, France, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement (district). Nearly 35,000 objects from prehistory to the 21st century are exhibited over an area of 60,600 square metres (652,300 square feet). The Louvre is the world's most visited museum, and received more than 9.7 million visitors in 2012.^[1]

The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace, originally built as a fortress in the late 12th century under Philip II. Remnants of the fortress are visible in the basement of the museum. The building was extended many times to form the present Louvre Palace."

Basement - Long Queue!!!

Bird & Repetition

Inside the glass pyramid

Lourve

Beautiful Lourve

Mona Lisa

Wiki: "The Mona Lisa (Monna Lisa or La Gioconda in Italian; La Joconde in French) is a half-length portrait of a woman by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci, which has been acclaimed as "the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world".^[1]

The painting, thought to be a portrait of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo, is in oil on a whiteLombardy poplar panel, and is believed to have been painted between 1503 and 1506, although Leonardo may have continued working on it as late as 1517. It was acquired by King Francis I of France and is now the property of theFrench Republic, on permanent display at The Louvre museum in Paris since 1797.^[2]

The ambiguity of the subject's expression, which is frequently described as enigmatic,^[3] the monumentality of the composition, the subtle modeling of forms and the atmospheric illusionism were novel qualities that have contributed to the continuing fascination and study of the work."

The world most famous painting.

The Crowd!!!

Below are some of the paintings I like very much:

Love the festive feeling and joyfulness of this painting.

Grim

A Painting by Michelangelo.

(I recognized that this is Michelango painting before I read the description. His style is quite distinctive - after seeing quite a few of his drawings in Italy.)

Lust

Underground of Lourve

Chilling out in the green in a good weather and nice view. =)

ORSAY MUSEUM

Wiki: "The Musée d'Orsay (French pronunciation: [myze dɔʁsɛ]) is a museum in Paris, France, on the left bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1915, including paintings, sculptures, furniture, and photography. It houses the largest collection of impressionist and post-impressionist masterpieces in the world, by painters including Monet,Manet, Degas, Renoir, Cézanne, Seurat, Sisley, Gauguin and Van Gogh. Many of these works were held at the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume prior to the museum's opening in 1986."

Musee d'Orsay

Love this museum.

Really appreciate the painting of Monet and Van Gogh. The paintings are beautiful, but I can't explain it. I never knew that I could appreciate these paintings. =)

Van Gogh was influenced by Monet, and slowly he changed his style which is unique and distinctive. This is a typical path to great mastery. Firstly, we have to learn from the great master (imitate). Then, we need to break free and create our own distinct characteristic.

To be great, you have to be different.

That's the hallmark of all great people.

They are different.

Clock inside the Museum

La Seine

Beautiful Paris

(Very different from the dirty Paris I saw the previous day)

PONT DES ARTS

Wiki: " The Pont des Arts or Passerelle des Arts is a pedestrian bridge in Paris which crosses the River Seine. It links theInstitut de France and the central square (cour carrée) of the Palais du Louvre, (which had been termed the "Palais des Arts" under the First French Empire).

Since late 2008, tourists have taken to attaching padlocks (love locks) with their first names written or engraved on them to the railing or the grate on the side of the bridge, then throwing the key into the Seine river below, as a romantic gesture.^[3]This gesture is said to represent a couple's committed love.^[4] Although this is not a French tradition and has only been taking place in Paris since the end of 2008, with locks occasionally being cut off by city workers, since 2012 the number of locks covering the bridge has become overwhelming, with locks being attached upon other locks. In February 2014, Le Monde estimated^[5] that there were over 700,000 locks; with the 2014 summer tourist season, many thousands more have since been added, creating a serious safety concern for city authorities and an aesthetic issue for Parisians."

The famous Love-Lock bridge

Heart

Colourful Locks

SAINTE-CHAPELLE

Wiki: "The Sainte-Chapelle (French pronunciation: [sɛ̃t ʃapɛl], Holy Chapel) is a royal medieval Gothic chapel, located near thePalais de la Cité, on the Île de la Cité in the heart of Paris, France.

Begun some time after 1239 and consecrated on 26 April 1248,^[2] the Sainte-Chapelle is considered among the highest achievements of the Rayonnant period of Gothic architecture. Its erection was commissioned by King Louis IX of Franceto house his collection of Passion Relics, including Christ's Crown of Thorns - one of the most important relics in medieval Christendom.

Along with the Conciergerie, the Sainte-Chapelle is one of the earliest surviving buildings of the Capetian royal palace on the Île de la Cité. Although damaged during the French revolution, and restored in the 19th century, it retains one of the most extensive in-situ collections of 13th-century stained glass anywhere in the world."

Beautiful

Colourful Stained Glass

NOTRE DAME CATHEDRAL

Wiki: "Notre-Dame de Paris (IPA: [nɔtʁə dam də paʁi]; French for "Our Lady of Paris"), also known as Notre-Dame Cathedralor simply Notre-Dame, is a historic Catholic cathedral on the eastern half of the Île de la Cité in the fourth arrondissement of Paris, France.^[2] The cathedral is widely considered to be one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture, and it is among the largest and most well-known church buildings in the world. The naturalism of its sculptures and stained glass are in contrast with earlier Romanesque architecture.

As the cathedral of the Archdiocese of Paris, Notre-Dame is the parish that contains the cathedra, or official chair, of thearchbishop of Paris, currently Cardinal André Vingt-Trois.^[3] The cathedral treasury is notable for its reliquary which houses some of Catholicism's most important first-class relics including the purported Crown of Thorns, a fragment of the True Cross, and one of the Holy Nails.

In the 1790s, Notre-Dame suffered desecration during the radical phase of the French Revolution when much of its religious imagery was damaged or destroyed. An extensive restoration supervised by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc began in 1845. A project of further restoration and maintenance began in 1991."

The Original Notre Dame Cathedral

(The first one I visited was in Ho Chih Minh City, Vietnam)

Close-up

Nice Gothic Church

Walking on Paris street is also very enjoyable.... people watching... nice views....

2 Pedestrians...

Vespa...

Chilling out by the river...

Street Performers...

Nice Hot Chocolate and just chill in a cafe... =)

Random nice buildings

CENTRE POMPIDOU

Wiki: "Centre Georges Pompidou (French pronunciation: [sɑ̃tʁ ʒɔʁʒ pɔ̃pidu]; commonly shortened to Centre Pompidou; also known as the Pompidou Centre in English) is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of the 4th arrondissement of Paris, near Les Halles, rue Montorgueil and the Marais. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano, along with Gianfranco Franchini.

It houses the Bibliothèque publique d'information (Public Information Library), a vast public library, the Musée National d'Art Moderne, which is the largest museum for modern art in Europe, and IRCAM, a centre for music and acoustic research. Because of its location, the Centre is known locally as Beaubourg (IPA: [bobuʁ]). It is named after Georges Pompidou, the President of France from 1969 to 1974 who commissioned the building, and was officially opened on 31 January 1977 by President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. As of 2006, the Centre Pompidou has had over 180 million visitors since 1977^[1] and more than 5,209,678 visitors in 2013,^[2] including 3,746,899 for the museum.^[3]"