Day 17 | The Louvre

Day 17, Paris—A visit to the Louvre is in the books for today. We went to the Louvre (there for about six hours) and back home and still walked 6.5 miles. We had to have walked 3-4 miles just at the museum. This place is HUGE! Nathan and the girls got some sketching in today too, which is fun to watch.

Louvre Pyramids—The glass pyramids were designed by I.M. Pei, a Chinese-American architect. Before the pyramid was there, entering the museum was difficult. There were too many entrances and they were too small to efficiently allow the growing number of people who wanted to visit the Louvre. They needed one main entrance that had enough space for plenty of visitors. I.M. Pei came up with the idea for guests to enter into an underground lobby, and then people can easily disperse into different areas of the museum from there.

There was controversy over the design from different perspectives....the style, wondering if a Chinese-American architect could really bring what Paris, France needed/wanted. Personally, I really like it. The two styles of architecture are different, but I like that each part fits the time it was built. There is no need to try to make it match. I love how the pyramid is clear, as not to take away completely from the ornate palace. Logistically, the design works really well. There is so much space in the lobby and there are different areas to go into the exhibits, so everyone isn’t trying to get into the same space at one time. And the light that comes through is so nice. Being married to an architect, I’ve come to appreciate the time and knowledge it takes to design a space well. I really like this space.