SULLY & DENON

I have to confess that I had no idea that the Louvre is housed in a massive palace. Actually, the world's largest palace. How did I watch The Davinci Code and not pick up on that? It stretches along the right bank of the Seine for a kilometer; it just goes on and on. I was aware that it's one of the largest museums in the world, but that little slice of information was completely lost in translation. I just didn't comprehend the scale of the place until it took us ten minutes to sail past it. Wanting to make the most of our last morning in Paris, and make the most of the museum, we ate our breakfast on the run, took a moment for obligatory photos within the famous Glass Pyramid and then descended into the Museum. Standing in the reception area, the wings of the museum stretch out on all sides and it didn't take us long to realize that we didn't know where to start. Of course, we wanted to see the Museums two famous ladies, but where on earth were we going to find them? And what about the other 30,000 works? We were overwhelmed with options and wasting time worrying about how much time we had. Enter tour guide headsets! Thank goodness.

I seem to remember that the Mona Lisa was one of the first paintings that we saw. She smiles from behind bullet proof glass, surrounded by a crowd vying for a close up with her. The painting is smaller in scale than I was expecting, and though the rest of the room is filled with sprawling canvases in heavy gilt frames, it is this small painting standing alone in the middle of the room that you remember. The paint looks luminous somehow, there's just something about her face that draws you in.

After admiring her we continued on to see another of the famous women housed in the Museum. She may be ancient and Greek, but Venus de Milo wasn't enough to keep Charlotte's attention and she was spark out while we looked at the sculpture. The drapery around her hips isn't ancient marble, but soft, fine silk. She is strong and beautiful. Our tour continued and took us into the crypt of the museum, where we saw the remnants of the fortress that the Museum was originally intended to be. After climbing the Daru Staircase we circled the Winged Victory of Samothrace, looking upon the statue from every angle. We saw The Coronation of Napoleon, the Virgin of the Rocks, halls filled with Roman Antiquities. When Charlotte woke she got to eat her lunch in the Red Room- not many people can say that.

We hadn't noticed any Louvre employees as we'd made our way through the galleries, but we learned that they are lurking everywhere. As my Mum was mixing Charlotte's bottle a little got spilled on our bench. Instantly, a man materialized in front of us, barking at us in French to clean up. Before we could tell him that we had every intention of 'doing just that if he'd give us a second', he'd melted back into the walls and we had no idea where he'd been watching us from. We were careful to keep spills to a minimum from that point on. Our morning quickly turned into the afternoon, and with a train home to catch we returned to that pyramid. We had a quick drink in the courtyard of the Louvre Palace, and from there it was back to our very first stop. Gare du Nord. Next stop, Mum's house!