The Louvre is most iconic for two things: the Mona Lisa and its glass pyramid. What I loved was the architecture of the building itself, and seeing one of my favorite childhood paintings, The Coronation of Napoleon.
Jacques-Louis David’s The Coronation of Napoleon is a painting I fell in love with upon seeing it in elementary school; I found it beautiful despite it being five inches wide in my textbook. You can imagine the impact the life-size version had on me! In the painting we see Napoleon crowning his new wife, Empress Joséphine. I just stood there and absorbed every detail of the beautiful canvas. It was truly an extraordinary experience.
Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic Mona Lisa was also lovely to see but didn’t have the same impact as The Coronation of Napoleon. I suppose because I wasn’t particularly fond of the style. However, I still took my friends’ advice to see the renown painting first which I’m glad we did because there was a large line when we left.
The rest of the museum was filled with beautiful sculptures, artifacts and paintings. They have dedications to anything and everything ranging from Italian classics, English art, Egyptian artifacts, Greek statues, Roman pillars, French paintings, prehistory and so much more.
The intricacy of the ceiling art in Galerie d’Apollon was also breathtaking. Instead of staring down at your phone, look up to the beautifully adorned ceilings.
As mentioned above, I truly enjoyed taking in the architecture of the fortress-converted-palace-converted museum. The detailing of the walls were to beautiful to not stare at. Even in the rainy, cold day I loved taking it all in.
