May 24 - Louvre Day Three - Walk like an Egyptian

Last day at the Louvre was a marathon on the Egyptian collection as well as Charles LeBrun (Louis XIVth favorite painter). We stumbled into these magnificent rooms at the end of the Egyptian collection which explained why it is so extensive. Each room was ornate and had a motif, some of which were Egyptian - and the originals collected in the rooms were the seeds of the collection which occupies endless rooms - I really mean endless.

This Cicero cracked us up since he's pointing down the stairs. It was so easy to get lost in there
we went up and down dozens of stairs only to end up back were we started. So we took Cicero's sign and finally were able to leave that section of the building.

This is a mirror reflection of Jupiter on the ceiling in one of the ornate rooms. The perspective in the mirror shows that this placement was totally intentional.

This is one of a group of immense "captives". The Frenchies were big on celebrating their victories, especially under Napoleon. 

Here is the dish on Musee du Louvre. This is in the hall of the Friends of the Louvre. If you donate enough dough you get you name in gold on the wall. The last entry was 2005 - probably the guy who bank rolled "Louvre Abu Dhabi" (Not making this up)

This is inside the pyramid. What a zoo. BTW, all the stuff in Da Vinci code about the Louvre is totally fictional including the modern security system. The only thing by the inverted pyramid in the basement that we could find was a bathroom - more precious than gold. The French seem to think 40 bathroom stalls for 40000 women is about right.

Not having enough elbows in the ribs at the Louvre we decided to take on Notre Dame - it was free and you get what you pay for. Here is the rosetta window behind "Our Lady" over the front door. What a really dark place.

 Finally back in one piece at the hotel. Thankfully, it is really across the street from the Louvre. We thought about going to the Eiffel Tower but it was a couple of bridges too far for us.

The lobby and one of the hard working concierges