THE LOUVRE & OTHER THINGS
Dear Caroline,
Finally had time to do some touristy things. This weekend I went to the Musee des arts decoratifs and the louvre. At the Musee they had an exhibit about fashion and sports. It was so cool! The way it was set up was that you would walk through time and see how the fashion for the most popular sports at the time have evolved. What I found really fascinating is that almost all sports were played by women competitively before men even had the thought to turn it into their carriers. Think of a sport and I bed women played it first. Tennis? Women would play it in the garden before a tea party. Archery… women, horse riding… women, gymnastics…women, swimming… women. So cool! The fashion that changed the most is the swimsuit. Long ago the bathing suits we know today would have never been allowed. Women would swim in whole dresses! It’s incredible to see the progression. The exhibit also had an installation of past Olympic uniforms and a large presentation of the use of sports wear in haute couture. It’s wild to see some of these creations I’ve known through the tv or magazines just inches away from me.
Next stop was the Louvre. One thing you need to keep in mind about the Louvre is that it is massive. And I mean MASSIVE! Many travellers will claim you can visit the entirety of the louvre in a morning, they are kidding themselves. I was there for two hours and I barely scratched the surface. I know the place was big, but I don’t think I really could grasp its size. From the outside it just looks like any other museum, a big U shaped building with a large courtyard and a few stories. However when you enter you begin to realize that that humble U shaped building has passages, upon passages, and secret books and crannies filled with art, antiquities and precious historical items. Two hours and I felt like I saw the whole of the museum, later I found a map and discovered I had only seen two sections of a single exhibit in a single wing of the museum. For reference there are three wings and five floors to each wing. That a lot of museum. Today I only saw some Roman statues and the Marly courtyard and I was exhausted. I even went to the gift shop and spent 45 minutes looking at what they had. Every thing is so vast here! Under the louvre there’s also this underground mall place called the Carousel, I was too overwhelmed to explore that maybe another day.
After all those statues I worked up and appetite and went to a famous bakery called Bo&Mie and tried their New York Roll. It was the most decadent thing I have had here. Maybe I’ll try and bring one for you. Don’t know how but I’ll try.
