A night of museums in Paris

Hey guys! Welcome to my first Parisian blog entry. I cannot wait to share my adventures in Paris. On these blogs, I will be covering mainly my experiences, school/ work life, events and different ways of meeting people. I will also be giving some useful tips on how to enjoy life in Paris on a student budget. If there are any special events coming up in the near future, I will address that as well.

Last week, on Saturday, May 19th, Paris held what is called the Nuit des musées à Paris. In other words, it was an open museum night, meaning free entrance to all the museums of Paris. And that is over 1000 museums -I know, I had no idea there were that many museums in the city either. Although I have already been to a few, I definitely did not want to pass up on this opportunity to explore some of the best museums in Paris! It is one of the biggest events of the year not only in Paris but apparently, all of Europe. The Museum Night event started at 18:00 and continued on until 1:00 AM.

Some of the museums that participated in the event were:

• The Louvre
• Musée d'Orsay
• Centre Georges Pompidou
• Château de Versailles
• Maison de Jeanne d'Arc
• Louis Vuitton Fondation
• Galerie des Gobelins -Mobilier National
• and, many others!

At the beginning of the night, I made a goal of checking out at least three museums before the end of the night and I was determined to check off these places off of my list by the end of the night. Even though I had already been to the Louvre before, I wanted to stop by again. There were a couple of art pieces I had missed on my first visit so I definitely wanted to take advantage of the free entrance and check out those works of art.

I also recently started a YouTube channel so I figured, this would be the perfect content for a Vlog idea, and not including the Louvre museum in my video was simply not an option. I will provide the link for the YouTube video that corresponds to this post at the end of this blog entry. I would be very grateful if you checked it out! In the video, I talk about my Top 5 favorites at the Louvre and show some other cool pieces from other museums. You would be able to watch a live visual of everything I talk about in this very post! Now moving onto our first museum of the night! Drumroll,

The Louvre:

If you have visited the Louvre before, you know how huge it is. There is no way you can see the whole thing in a day. I know because I have tried. There are just too many paintings and sculptures and other splendid artworks to be seen. The Louvre is divided into various wings and floors and each wing consists of many rooms, where each space is dedicated to various forms of art. For instance, you can find the famous splendid painting of Mona Lisa (La Gioconda) by the brilliant Leonardo DaVinci in the Denon wing.

So if you have seen the Mona Lisa, you know how small it is. It is insane! Maybe it is just me, but I have always pictured the Mona Lisa to be much bigger. Nevertheless, it is an incredible piece of art that one should see at least once in a lifetime. There are usually large groups of people gathered in front of the painting because -well, for obvious reasons. All with their phones out, trying to capture a photo of the super popular art while also attempting to get a good selfie.

I remember the first time when I tried to get a decent selfie with my girl, Mona. It was not easy. I squeezed myself to the front and somehow, managed to dodge the aggressive looks and pushes of other tourists. I was surprised fights weren't breaking out. Here is the infamous selfie I took and immediately sent to my Mom, with an accompanying message, reading, "Look Ma, I made it". Now, my mother, she is not too crazy about art but when she saw my selfie with the 500-year-old Mona Lisa, she was pretty excited and made sure to tell me how cool she thought I was.

Now, the Mona Lisa is one inconceivable piece of art because of some of the cool art techniques (which I don't really know anything about) it uses. And, obviously because of the buzz it created back in the early 1900's when it was stolen from the Louvre and later recovered after two years. Today, it is not a mystery that many people visit the Louvre mainly because of the famous Mona Lisa. Although it may be an incredible piece of art, I don't think it is the real highlight of a Louvre visit. There are far more other amazing artworks, such as The Winged Victory of Samothrace.

This is a piece you definitely do not want to miss! It has a very unique, cool background. I was lucky enough to learn the whole history of the sculpture of the beautiful Nike Goddess at the event of the Night of the Museums. For this event, the museum was kind enough to bring in some volunteer art students from local colleges and universities to educate visitors about the different pieces at the museum. One of the lovely girls gave me a beautiful explanation on how the Winged Victory of Samothrace ended up at the Louvre.

In the late 1800's, a French archeologist discovered the sculpture on an island, present-day Turkey. However, the sculpture was found in several pieces and soon after, it was shipped out to Paris. The Nike Goddess was then assembled together on the grounds of the Louvre, where it is housed today. The piece is believed to represent victory hence, its name. The Winged Goddess has served as an inspiration for many popular culture items in the world today, including the athletic apparel Nike and Rolls Royce. How neat is that?!

Another significant piece to check out at the Louvre is Psyche and Cupid. This is a beautiful piece depicting Cupid reviving the unconscious Psyche with the kiss of love.

Also, do not miss Michelangelo's two slaves.

And, here is one many of you should know, the Law Code of Hammurabi. I was pretty darn excited to see this masterpiece because I had learned about it back in 6th-grade History class when we were studying the Mesopotamian civilization. It is mind-blowing to think about how advanced the people of this time were. For instance, the saying "eye for an eye" is a paraphrase taken from this very incredible piece right here.

Anyways these are some of my favorites from the Louvre and I hope you will get a chance to see them for yourself! Before I move onto the other two museums, I just want to say that Louvre is usually packed with people. I mean it is only one of the most famous museums in the world. For many who are traveling to the City of Light, visiting Paris and checking out the Louvre museum is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Therefore, it would suck to spend a whole morning or an afternoon, waiting in a long line, only to get inside the museum. So if you are planning on visiting the Louvre in the future, I have a tip on how you can avoid these horrible lines.

The Louvre has a few entrances. The main one being the Pyramid entrance. Many people come through this entrance hence, the long queues. You absolutely want to ignore this one and instead, take the Carrousel entrance which is accessible by the Metro (Lines 1 and 7, Metro stop: Palais Royal- Musée du Louvre). Carrousel du Louvre is a gallery of shops and cafes, and towards the end, near a small inverted pyramid, you will find the museum entrance. On the night of the event, there was practically no one there and we just walked through it. While on the other hand, there were a lot of people waiting in the queue at the Pyramid entrance. Watch my YouTube video at the end of this blog entry to see what the Carrousel entrance looks like!

Musée d'Orsay:

Museum d'Orsay was beautiful! It was my first time visiting the museum and I have to say, it exceeded all the expectations I did not have. Thankfully, the queue was not that long. There was a huge group of people gathered on the main floor enjoying an orchestra group playing some lighthearted music. I even spotted a couple swing dancing! The atmosphere was very jovial and upbeat, and we decided to take a little break from all the walking, and sat down to listen to the beautiful music while people watching.

If you didn't know before, here is a cool fact about Museum d'Orsay: it was once a train station! As you walk in, you will notice the architecture with a spacious long hall. There are also huge clocks which have been built into the building. This area is a very popular spot for Instagram pictures and it also has a great view of the city!

There are many cool pieces of art at the Musée d'Orsay but the museum is too big to see all in one visit. However, I will quickly mention some of the memorable pieces you should definitely not miss on your Musée d'Orsay visit. There is a hall dedicated to Monet, who is the father of Impressionism art. The beauty of nature captured and painted in watercolors is something you should definitely see.

Another piece I really enjoyed was the replica of La Petite Danseuse. In English, it is called the Little Dancer of Fourteen Years. The original of this stunning sculpture is at New York in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Even though I have never seen the original, I am sure the replica is equally beautiful and of course, nothing short of amazing. The details were so intricate and the fabric of her tutu was just very realistic. I had seen a picture of it on Pinterest before and was quite taken by it. I really liked the sculpture. Add ripped jeans and me facsimile, and the fourteen-year-old dancer becomes postmodern.

Centre Georges Pompidou:

This Centre Georges Pompidou is located near the Chatelet station and Les Halles shopping center. I have passed by the giant urban building several times but never had the chance to go inside. It is a six-floor building. It houses a cinema, a library, and a museum. The museum is located on the upper floors so you need to take a long line of escalators to go up. What is cool about the escalators is that it is completely enveloped with glass, presenting a sublime view of the Parisian city. You also get a spectacular view of the Eiffel Tower.

If I am honest, this museum of modern and contemporary art was my absolute favorite. There were many interesting pieces that just make you stop and think. Some of these pieces had me wondering about how on earth they were ever considered art, but then again, what do I know? It was just very cool to walk through the halls and discover all kinds of art.

I also think Centre Pompidou is probably more enjoyable for kids, in comparison to the other museums. The works of art there are very colorful and they incorporate all kinds of materials, which you can see in the pictures below. I was very happy to be able to finally make it to Centre Pompidou however, quite sad because we could not stay for too long. It was already a little past midnight when we arrived, and we had an RER train to catch at quarter to 1.

A few useful tips:

• This is common sense but I just want to remind some of my readers to make sure to wear comfortable "museum" shoes, as you will be walking a lot.

• Have some snacks and water on you just in case. The museums do have several cafes inside however, you will need to be prepared to pay the inflated prices. We were smart and purchased fresh baguettes for snacks. You can never go wrong with a baguette, am I right!?

  

• Download the SNCF application when you are in Paris! (I will probably stress this numerous times in my Parisian blog because that is how important this application is. ) The SNCF app allows you to enter your current location and your destination then lists several different routes based on your preferences. It also gives you a timetable and alerts, in case of an emergency. The latter has been quite important nowadays due to the SNCF strikes in France. More reason to download the application!

The to link my YouTube video.

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