Excursion part3 - PARIS

13rd September, the second day in Paris.

Morning is still freezing. Before departing to start Paris tour, we went inside the supermarket located beside our accommodation to look for Parisian foodies and goodies.

The circulation and way they display items is similar to Malaysia's - section by section. But surprisingly I found that payment systems is self-serviced with payment machines, unlike local system where we pay at the counters with supermarket crews.

Various kind of breads!

A children-books diaplay at the center of the market.

Fresh veggies.

And the machines.
(I don't know how to use it because of the
French language... orz)

I knew The Louvre since my secondary school time, when my buddies and I loved reading English literature, and I read Dan Brown's novel the Da Vinci Code. The Louvre is an amazing place with plenty of puzzles and mysteries. I couldn't express how excited was I when I reached The Louvre. I was so touched when I just stepped out from the Palais-Royal–Musée du Louvre metro station and The Louvre is just located beside. Like... a dream, yea, it was so unreal... (but for sure I know it's reality)

The view once we came out from the metro.
It's... amazing!

The glass pyramid! The significance of the Louvre!
Nobody could understand how high was my mood, nobody!

Long queue to enter.
zzzzzzzz

1, 2, cheers! We are happy girls!

Before we get into the museum, we walked around the garden next to the museum and take photos as the greenery environment is soothing.

Can u spot something inside?
(hint: on the grass)

The Louvre Museum is central landmark of Paris and one of the largest museums in the world. It displays around 35,000 works of art around the world, for instance near Eastern, Egyptian, Greek, Etruscan, Roman, East Mediterranean in the Roman Empire, Islamic, etc.

The entrance to glass pyramid.

Below the glass pyramid is a bright and imposing space of entrance with geometry structures. Spiral staircase at the center is outstanding due to its organic form. There are information counters, ticket counters, cafes and souvenir shops in the space before the entrance to the museum.

Peek inside the pyramid.

The geometry forms of structures.

The Louvre shop.

Interesting thing found in the shop.
*laughs*

The museum was crowded although it is neither public holidays nor weekends. We proceeded to sculpture section first, looking at European sculptures from the Early Middle Ages to the mid-19th century. The interior spaces are grand and intense with vast skylight.

Entrance to sculpture section.

Sculpture displays.

Another space for sculpture displays.

The Wing Goddess of Victory attracted crowds.

Rest areas available in the museum.

The beautiful glass curvy ceiling and skylight!

Another interest thing I found I the Louvre.
The selfie sculpture man.

Interior design of the Islamic art wing inspired me a lot.

Details of the ceiling.
It is formed with many triangular bronze metal mesh panels
and supported with metal frames between ceiling and roof.

The walls are made of fixed glass panels to allow visitors
 look out at the surrounding architecture.
 It allows natural lighting to enter the space and
makes the gallery spacious and grand.

In terms of facilities, the museum is accessible for disabled folks with wheelchair rental, elevators and guidance of crew. Braille can be found on artwork description boards/ panels too.

The description with braille.

However, it is inconvenient for foreign visitors like us to understand the artworks as some of the descriptions are in French instead of English, unless we pay extra for audio guide.

Before we leaved, we went to 1st floor solely to see Mona Lisa the legendary painting by Leonardo da Vinci. However I was so sad that I couldn't look at the painting in details due to huge crowds. I WAS SO SAD UNTIL NOW.

Mona Lisa... you are so close yet so far... *sobs*
Scary humans why...

End stories of The Louvre. Another interesting place I've visited that day is the Centre Pompidou - the largest museum for modern art in Europe.

Artists and performers gather at the open area
 in front of the centre to sell and promote their
masterpieces and talents too. Just look like a
small art market, I like it~

Souvenirs stalls can be spotted there for sure.

Rows of souvenir shops. Found some cheap yet nice
postcards here yay!

Facade of the Centre Pompidou. The scaffolds and glass-tube
escalator is its significance.

 In front of the entrance is a wide ground for
public to sit down and enjoy the scenery of
surrounding (but I'm not sure what is the leisure
of observing the crowded stalls and
the Centre Pompidou exterior though).

Metal structures, plenty of natural lighting and
exposed high ceiling makes the reception area bold and
eye-catching.

It's still crowded in evening.

Primary colors and gray are used mostly in the space.

We only visited the permanent exhibitions as temporary exhibitions need another ticket. The collections are totally different with what we saw in the Louvre - the artpieces are modern, contemporary and conceptual (such as Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, Surrealism, Futurism, Constructivism,  etc.), displayed in various methods such as paintings, sculptures, installations, videos, films, drawings, photographs, etc. It was fun and interesting to explore the centre as I gained plenty of inspirations there!

Some of the artworks that's inspired me:-
*sorry for no captions or credits as I didn't note down artworks and artists' name*

All the commercial spaces - the restaurant, library and shop in the centre:-

The funky restaurant at top level.

A small souvenir shop.

Library or resource area I think... we cannot access into it
though.

A bigger souvenir shop at ground floor, where nice goodies
and postcards can be found here.

Inside the tube.

Since we visit the centre on evening, I got an unexpected chance to see the sunset view of Paris though the fixed glass walls. I would never forget the charming and romantic Paris sunset view.

Ahh... how romantic, AWWW.

The Centre Pompidou at night. It looks more beautiful!

My friends and I leaved the centre and proceeded to the Eiffel tower again for the tower's night view - it is a MUST to view Eiffel tower at night! I would regret for my whole life if I missed it, seriously.

On the way going to the tower, there were
 a lot of stalls still opening, selling Parisian foods
 and drinks, crafts and souvenirs, etc. at
affordable and reasonable price.

Colorful, mouth-watering, craving!

Nothing to say. But simply WONDERFUL.

It looks like a painting!

The Eiffel tower looked more impressive and appealing at night with warm-toned illuminations, highlighting the beauty of the frameworks. It even sparkled for five minutes every hour!

Here's the end of second day in Paris. Had a good dream of the beautiful Eiffel tower.