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Although today included our first Depeche show in this final leg of the tour, I think this journal entry will border on trip advisor versus our personal journal.  The experience just lends itself to that.  I mean it’s the Louvre, after all.

We started the day by taking the metro over to the Louvre area. We were on the hunt for chocolate eclairs to get the day started and found some just across the street.  We were a little leery of them because they weren’t in one of those beautiful patisseries that are all over Paris, but they were surprisingly good.  Here is Sandy enjoying hers before going into the Louvre.

We had our pre-purchased tickets this time – 1:00pm entry – so we got in line around 12:30 and we entered right at 1:00.  Here is the funny thing – that line we waited in yesterday and then gave up – non-existent today.  I think the walkups were getting in faster than the pre-purchased tickets.  Oh well, the luck of the draw.  Next time we’re here – I guess we can’t make a recommendation either way.

So the Louvre.  Well, obviously incredible.  I mean it’s arguably the most famous museum in the world and there is a reason for that.  Now I’m the kind of person who would love to get a nice thick book about every piece in a given museum and go sit and study each piece taking however many weeks or months it would take.  I say that, but if I did it, maybe I couldn’t make it more than a few days or maybe I could.  Sandy – I think she’d be good with an hour or two depending on the museum.  So we meet in the middle or something like that.  I think we may have spent about three hours or maybe a little more in the Louvre today.  After all, there was important business to be had at night – yes, a Depeche Mode concert.  I think we did a really good job getting through the museum and making sure to see the highlights we wanted to see and then some.  This journal entry will include our highlights – it can’t include everything we saw because I don’t think either of us would ever read the whole entry in the future, much less anybody who is taking the time to read this with us.

One of Sandy’s favorite pieces – she had two – was Sleeping Hermaphrodite.  This was done by Bernini in the early 1600s.  The mattress is quite remarkable.  It’s rather difficult to believe when you are looking at it that it is solid marble.  Apparently there are other copies of this piece and it is even a copy from an earlier bronze original from before Christ which was created in ancient Greece.

Although neat to see, I won’t spend much time on the Venus de Milo or Winged Victory of Samothrace.  They are beautiful, especially the presentation of the Winged Victory at the top of a grand marble staircase.  It’s pretty cool to be looking at manmade objects that are more than 2200 years old.  This is one of those times where I am restraining myself from writing too much.  Remember, I could spend weeks in a museum like the Louvre.

Here is the obligatory Mona Lisa picture. 

Yes, it’s neat to see; yes, the room is crowded.  I didn’t take a picture of it, but the painting opposite the Mona Lisa was one of my favorites.  It is called The Wedding Feast at Cana and it was painted by Veronese.  It is gorgeous and huge.  Its dimensions are 21 feet by 33 feet.  Much more impressive than the Mona Lisa.  I’m not saying the Mona Lisa isn’t impressive – it’s just so small compared to something like the Wedding Feast at Cana.

This was another of my favorites – The Coronation of Napoleon.  I really enjoyed this one because there is so much going on in it. I haven’t seen the recent Napoleon movie, but this made me want to along with some other Napoleon-related paintings in the Louvre.  Wikipedia has an excellent description of this one if you are further interested.

Time for Sandy’s other favorite.  This is Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss.  Done by Canova in 1787, this one is another beautiful piece and encourages the viewer to take it in from all sides.  It’s a pretty emotional one as far as a marble statue goes as this is when Cupid is awakening Psyche with a kiss.

I was not familiar with the Statue of Ebih-II, which was discovered in Syria.  It’s a small statue but look at how well it has been preserved.  And now, let me tell you that it is more than 4400 years old.  That is mind-boggling to me.

While touring the Louvre, we grabbed a couple of ham and cheese sandwiches to sustain us.  Like I said, we spent several hours there and it was a fantastic experience.  We headed back to the Bercy neighborhood and our hotel.  Had a few minutes to change and relax before we walked in the direction of the venue.  We decided on dinner at Chez Coquille.  The food was excellent – I had butter chicken (an Indian dish) that was worth having again (so I did a couple of days later).  We can’t remember what Sandy had but it was the same result – she had it again a couple of days later.  And then we were off to Depeche.

Easy entry into the venue.  We were a little later than we wanted.  We were hoping to see Suzie Stapleton but we missed her first couple of songs.  That’s ok, there will be other opportunities.  I enjoyed her music.  Her voice reminded me of Ann Wilson from Heart.  We watched Depeche from the back of the floor of the arena.  That’s usually a good spot for us because we prefer to have some space and not be packed in, but this show was crowded and that wasn’t exactly possible.  Still, the show was excellent.  I think the guys get better and better as the tour rolls along.  They’ve done more than a hundred shows on this tour and I’m amazed at how they get the energy up every single time.  The highlight was that we got to see Somebody for the first time on this tour.  That was one of our wedding songs so we always love it when we get to hear it.  After a few quick hellos after the show, we were straight back to the hotel – only a 15-minute walk.  Can’t beat that.  Eiffel Tower is planned for tomorrow and then we shouldn’t be too far from getting some more relaxing days.