Wrapping Up The Louvre: Napoleon's Apartment

I know we haven't been blogging about food for quite some time now, & The Lourve is not exactly edible. But we've just got to share this with you.

This was Napoleon's apartment situated at The Louvre.

We weren't aware of it at that time but we thought it was the original Napoleon's. But it turned out to be the other running number Napoleon III, who was the first President of the French Republic & also the last monarch.

The apartment was built as part of the new wing of the Louvre, connecting it to the Tuileries Palaces.

This was probably where the big boss sat.

This was probably where you had to wait to see the big boss.

In a table setting like this, what happens when you say Can someone pass me the soya sauce please & it's all the way at the other end of the table?

The Lourve: Galerie d'Apollon

Sorry to disappoint you but we're not done with The Louvre yet.

This particular section of the gallery is called the Galerie d'Apollon.

Comparing with the other galleries, this one has got to be the most zhng-ed one in the whole of The Louvre. It seemed like Ah Lien was here & she did a complete makeover of the place.

This whole thing was commisioned by Louis XIV who was the Sun King in the 1660s. The designs on the ceiling & walls depict Apollo, which was a representation of King Louis himself, strangely. It's wierd how some people can be so rich & powerful that they start to think that they're gods.

But that's really no different from a particular 'royal' family in Sarawak.

These must be the over-decorated & over-zhng-ed drinking cups used by Louis XIV.


This was the most interesting display in the entire hall.

This was the Coronation Crown for the King. Strangely, it looked very cheap & devoid of anything expensive.

But when you see the Queen's Crown, you'd go WHAT THE?!!

Who's really in charge here?!!

But then again, it shouldn't be surprising. Royalty or not, the husbands always wear the cheap RM5 white Teck Kong T-shirt while the wife carries a RM5,000 LV bag.

Heheheh. Actually, both of the crowns could have been the King's lah. But all the same, the Teck Kong T-shirt & LV analogy still stands.

Day 3 in Paris: Return to the Lourve

There are 35,000 works of art in eight separate departments at the The Musée du Louvre which takes up 60,000 square feet of space. But when you get there, all you'd really want to see (& so does every single other Asian) is one thing only... The Mona Lisa.

Mona Lisa somehow looked much better in 'real life'. The colours were actually more vibrant. But I think nobody realised that cos everyone was jostling for position to take their been there pictures. With the peace sign on their fingers.

We bought a €9 full-day pass cos we figured we'd be there practically the whole day. It's a simple calculation. If it takes 1 minute to look at an artwork (inclusive of the time for walking), 35,000 artwork would take you 45 days. So prioritisation was very important.

The Louvre started out as a fortress back in 1190 to protect the small town from enemy attacks. Then as time went by, different kings with running-number names of Louis I, II, IVX, XXVII, VXIVX, etc. expanded the drabby old walls into a super rich palace while the children in Africa had nothing to eat.
Then somewhere along the line, part of the palace became an art gallery & was opened to the general public in 1793. And today, the gallery has engulfed the whole palace like cancer.

Observe carefully the level of intricacy in the designs, & the richness of everything.

The kings must have been so rich that they ate gold & pooped gold, with intricate designs.

This is what you call filthy rich. Nearer to home, we call this got money until no manners.



I'm seriously wondering if the French royalties were Foochows.


A lot of the earlier paintings were visual representations of biblical stories like Samson & Delilah.

Some were of major events like the coronation of some King Louis the VIIXVVXII to the power of 3 or something close.


Others were mostly portraits of famous people like Napoleon.

Now that I look back at it, it is no wonder why Paris became the place to study art. It simply has one of the best art repository in the world.

I hope these kids are learning real art & not painting something the likes of Negaraku Gemilang or Wawasan 2020.