Assorted Louvre Pix, 2025

Our default Paris destination is the Louvre, and we got there several more times, not for anything in particular--those will be separate posts--but just to look around, visit old favorites, often learn something new. Sometimes there would be a goal, e.g., the special donor room with the few Monets and Renoirs, and finding it in spite of mistaken memories and misleading advice from the guards, and leading to more new discoveries. Anyhow, here are a few pix from some of these visits.

The Louvre has just this one Bosch, traditionally entitled
The Ship of Fools, but it's got a great story...a reference to
Sebastian Brandt's 1493 bestseller Das Narranschiff, a humanist
social critique, with illustrations by a young Albrect Durer; Bosch's
painting may well have derived from Durer's frontispiece
woodcut; the painting itself is the upper bit of the left side
of a triptych concerning the seven deadly sins; the lower bit is
at Yale, and the left panel, concerning the death of the wealthy man,
is at the National Gallery in DC; nothing is known of the missing
central panel; an incredible intersection nonetheless...

Piter Huys, Temptations of Anthony, 1547; never miss a Temptation
of Anthony...

Unknown, copy of Elder Peter Breughel's Parable of the Blind,
later 1500s; we saw the original at Capodimonte long ago  

Younger Holbein, Erasmus, early 16th

Frans Pourbus, Last Supper, 1618

Rarely, if ever, do depictions of the Last Supper include the
wait-staff; but, in Pourbus' rendition, here they are; the guy
on the right seems to be saying "look out, I think the guy with
his hair on fire may have ordered red wine..."

Preview of upcoming attractions: the Tuileries, Place de la Concorde,
the Cauldron, the Grand Palais...stay tuned...

Now we are in the bowels of the Louvre, learning about the architectural
and other history of the place

Early sketch of the Pyramide

Just hilarious, some people thought...

Huge, detailed, colorful model

Same model, looking back from the Place de la Concorde

Moving right along, another day, another place, we are looking
at the oldest artifact in Louve...the 9,000 year old Ain Ghazal
statue, a pre-pottery statue form neolithic Jordan...on 30-year
loan to the Louvre

"Don't make my butt too big," #1,592

The Met has a wing closed and so has loaned the Louvre a
number of items that complement holdings of the latter...
"Dialogues d'Antiquities Orientales"; here is one, a silver-gilt
drinking horn, Anatolia, 5th BCE

Humongous temple column, Assyrian

More drinking horns

Silver plate of King Yazgard slaying a deer, Iran early 5th CE; from
the Met

Yes, but is it dishwasher safe?

Assyrian orthostat

More from the Met: copper temple foundation pegs, c. 2100 BCE

Another day, another building...the ever-popular Hall of Apollo
royal jewels, etc.

A couple of Vicki's favorite Botticelli frescoes...Venus introducing a
young woman to the Three Graces

Venus introducing a young man to the seven liberal arts

A late Giotto Crucifixion

In the Louvre, no matter what's on the walls, always look up;
what's there can be as significant as the other stuff

Tribute to Poussin

Attempted book-burning

Guards defending Mr. Smoky's Special Lady Friend

The Rosearie At Parc Bagatelle, Bois du Boulogne

Even after Giverny we were still short on our quota of roses for the season, so June 10th, we headed to the Bois du Boulogne, one of Paris' several enormous parks, and specifically it's Parc de Bagatelle, which houses two (count 'em) enormous roseries. We only got to the first rose garden, plus the kitchen garden, deciding to save the rest for another year. I am pleased to say we have now surpassed our rose quota for the year. FWIW, the preceding weekend had been the annual rose show at Bagatelle, with the judging of some 100 new rose varieties, so we figured there was a good chance everything still would be in bloom. Also FWIW, the chateau and garden resulted from a bet between Marie Antoinette and the Count of Artois, about long it would take to build a chateau...64 days! Makes you feel so good about regicide. We'll get to the chateau next time.

En route, a pied, from the bus stop...La Grand Cascade restaurant;
the canopies mimic Guimard's Metro edicules...

La Grand Cascade...not so impressive if you've seen Iguazu Falls; probably
artificial anyway

Entering Bagatelle

Enormous place, and just a smidgeon of the Bois du Boulogne; we
only did the lower right-hand side of the map

Smelling the roses...and we're still in the kitchen garden...

Thus

Our modest pique-nique; we have been totally spoiled this year, having
award-winning Michael Reydillet baguettes with nearly every meal...just
like President Macron

Pretty much everything in bloom

The usual incredibly good interpretive signage, mostly
French, some English, some Latin...

Working our way from the irises to the rose garden

Voila!

And still pretty close to the city

Signage on virtually every plant

You can already vote on next year's varieties

We ended up at the Orangerie

Being decked-out for next week's exhibition

One of the resident peacocks bids us a farewell and come back again