Day 20: One final day in Paris

By Catherine Carter

Au revoir France! For my last day in Paris, I went to the Louvre! I absolutely ‘louvred’ it! The museum was almost incomprehensibly large. I spent five hours inside and I think I only saw 20% of what’s inside. I wasn’t even able to take my time with each piece, I had to rush through it all. My favorite exhibits were the Greek and Roman statues. Their sheer size and details were so impressive. I could have stared at them for hours and hours. But I had to move on to try to see more of what was there.

Of course I saw the most famous piece in probably the entire world – the Mona Lisa. She had moved from one wing to another last week because they are updating the room she is usually in. It was a weird set-up because the Mona Lisa was in a room with French paintings. These paintings weren’t just small canvases either; they were about ten or twelve murals that each stretched at least 20 feet by 20 feet. She was placed in front of them, blocking these important pictures in their own right. Being in a different room made it slightly more difficult to see the Mona Lisa, but the staff kept the line moving which I appreciated until it was my turn to take pictures. I had about one minute to snap pictures before a security guard pushed us all along. Even though it wasn’t a long time, I really enjoyed the time I had to enjoy seeing such a famous painting. Today and this whole weekend has been exhausting, but I enjoyed every minute of it! My advice to anyone who wants to visit Paris would be to spend a long time there, especially in the Louvre, because there is no way to see it all in three days!