The Louvre and BATOBUS

       Monday was our Louvre visit, but we had to morning free so Alex, Whitney and I walked over to Notre Dame and purchased tickets for the Batobus, a ferry with 8 stops at the important monuments along the Seine. All morning we coasted along the river admiring the city, with a quick stop at the Eiffel Tower. It is beautiful and BIG in person. 

When it was time to meet the group we got off at the Louvre stop, had a quick snack, then met in front of the pyramid for a quick introduction with Meg! The weather was absolutely gorgeous and everyone was in high spirits.
        Inside the Louvre was a different story--we went over to see the Mona Lisa which was tolerable, but then the Winged Victory was undergoing renovation and the Netherlandish exhibit was closed so no Van Eyck. After those two blows it was like we didn't have a plan anymore so we spent a pointless hour in the medieval exhibit not really doing anything and then went to look at Vermeer's (which were amazing but don't really have to do with our period). Meanwhile I am freaking out wanting to go look at the large-scale 19th Century French paintings and resentful of the wasted time... but finally we escaped and went on our own to see what I had been anticipating!

I especially enjoyed seeing The Raft of the Medusa, Girodet's Sleep of Endymion, and ALL the paintings by Ingres. I had been very excited to see David's work, but for some reason the colors didn't feel as bright as they should in person--too much contrast on the slides in class, maybe? Still, it was very special! I was a little disappointed that Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People is away for the year... so we had bad luck about which exhibits were closed when we went and it was overall pretty exhausting. Still, the Louvre! And what I saw was spectacular!
       After this Alex, Whitney and I hopped back on our boat and were almost late for dinner which was at the same place as Saturday night, but this time I had spinach ravioli, lamb medallions and a molten chocolate cake--it was soooo delicious!