This visit to the Louvre was with the parents - which was nice since they hadn't seen it. And, since visits are always a little different, I saw some things I hadn't seen before.
The Louvre added the Sphinx of Tanis to their top things to see (self-guided walking tour) so we took a look. It was in great shape for being over 4000 years old. What I didn't particularly like was it's in an alcove so you can only see it from the front which means 1) you can't see it from any angle and 2) it creates a crowd problem because there's no way for viewers to depart without pushing back through the crowd.
Classic... I took my parents to see certain things - one of which was the Winged Victory of Somathrace and as you can see, it wasn't very visible. I'm not complaining because I've already seen it and when I say "classic" I only mean it's my classic luck. However, on the contrary, Liberty Leading the People by Delacroix (which I love) had returned. It was gone last time.
It was good to re-discover St Michael Vanquishing Satan by Raphael.
Here are a couple of shots of the family in the Louvre Denon wing and in front of a painting they have in their home (not the original). Pretty cool.
My dad wanted to see the Code of Hammurabi which is over 3750 years old and is located in Cour Khorsabad with other Near Eastern Antiquities. It was incredibly detailed and in amazing condition for its age. In the same area, I saw this cool lion statue (from the same era)...
And this lion relief of glazed bricks - quite possibly seen by Daniel (of the Book of Daniel) himself.
Enfin, on the way out, I took this shot of the escalators which are quite modern in such a building as the Louvre.
After the Louvre, we visited the somewhat famous (I assume) marché de Nöel on Champs-Élysées. They certainly have a lot of junk for sale, but they have some cool stuff to see, too. And they have vin chaud (or glühwein) which is always a nice treat. I had to take a couple of pics...
On the left, this was a cool way to smoke fish - the fish fillets are on the sides. On the right is just one example of some of the bizarre displays throughout the marché. This one was actually the most normal. There was one with some shrews and their tunnels and another with orangutans. Very Christmas-y. Or not. But it was a good thing to see, the weather was perfect, and we had some great bratwursts!
fin
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