Louvre Lundi

Today we explored the Musee du Louvre. What can we say ... for me, it was all about the sculptures; and for Brent, it was Napoleon's apartments, the paintings depicting Napoleon's victories and the Italian masters. It was fabulous to recognise the names of painters and the stories they depicted from our visit to the Uffizi - artists such as Filippo Lippi, Caravaggio and Botticelli depicting the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac and David's triumph over Goliath.


There is a wonderful room of sculptures that is called the "tactile" room. Here, the sculptures are copies of the originals and you are able to feel the marble, bronze, quartz - whatever the medium of the original is - and descriptions are provided in braille. This is a fabulous idea because it is so frustrating standing beside the sculptures and not being able to touch them.

The Louvre is, of course, a fabulous building and houses an incredible collection of art. Having now been to the Uffizi, for me, the Uffizi feels more like the art lives there, rather than a gallery housing the art. Each of the musees is very different in character and both provide access to many of the works of the same painters and artisans. We feel very fortunate to have experienced both.