Au Louvre! (Last Sunday in Paris . . . For Now)

Sunday, November 11. Veterans Day.

Now that the time to depart leave is nearly here, I must say I'm beginning to look forward to being home. I'm eager to see my children and my friends, to lie in bed in the morning listening to NPR (not ready yet for France Inter!) and to have a comfortable place to read. That's one thing this apartment lacks.

I've decided that I cannot leave Paris without seeing the Vermeers so am off to the Louvre today to hit the 17th c. Dutch art section: Richelieu, 2eme etage. I've already looked it up on line so don't have to figure it out once I arrive. The place is so huge as to be almost oppressive.

The Louvre. OK, so have I got this place whacked! Metro from Hotel de Ville to Palais Royal/ Musee du Louvre. There's a direct route from this metro station right into the Carrousel du Louvre (the big underground complex). Follow signs for Musee du Louvre. Go through Controle des Sacs (this is where they scan your bags). Enter hall under pyramid. Buy ticket at one of the automatic ticket dispensers. Grab a map of the museum from the Info Desk. At the Controle des Billets for the Richelieu wing, I show the man my map, point to where I think we are, ask him "nous sommes ici?" When he says yes, I'm off, down the hall and up the stairs to the escalators which I take all the way to the top (2eme etage), and about 20 minutes after I left my apartment, I'm walking into the Northern Renaissance galleries!


I've discovered a couple of things. One, it's important to have a plan and be focused on one or two things. Second, and equally important, it's a good idea to take a day off between museum visits. Lyn and I did the Courbet exhibit the day after I had spent more than three hours at the Musee des Arts & Metiers: this was not a good idea. Today, I spent more than two hours in the Northern Renaissance galleries (that would be Rooms 1 through 39!), went back down to the area under the pyramid, had a snack and an orangina in the cafe, spent some time in the bookstore, walked back through the underground connection to the metro and home.


Northern Renaissance Collection. The Louvre has quite a nice collection of paintings from "the Northern School." Accordingly to a placard, more than 12oo paintings dating from the 15th c. to the 1850s. There's a veritable alphabet of Flemish and Dutch painters: from Brueghel and Cranach, through Holbein and Rembrandt, all the way to Vermeer and beyond. There's a remarkable painted table top (from about 1500) that I don't remember ever seeing before. The square top is divided into four pyramid-shaped sections that each tell part of the story of David from the Bible. There's a lovely painting by Metsys, Le Peseur d'Or et Sa Femme, that I especially like. Another by Mignon is labelled simply Bouquet de Fleurs avec Libellule (dragonfly). I spend a lot of time looking for the dragonfly (it's way above my line of sight and dark!) but in the process find a snail, butterflies, caterpillars, ladybugs and tiny worms! The wonderful thing about this painting is the reflection of a window in the glass vase. Rembrant's Le Boeuf Ecorche makes me wonder whether it influenced Soutine's choice of subject matter many years later.

I finally arrive in the room (Salle 38) with the Vermeers (also two wonderful paintings by Pieter de Hooch in this room). There are two: L'Astronome et La Dentelliere. Of course, one could spend a lifetime looking at them and still feel that you hadn't plumbed the depths.

Spend the evening at home, trying to get a headstart on the packing.