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本帖最后由 SUIM 于 2010-11-22 06:02 编辑
Louvre is the most visited museum in the world, with tens of thousands of art pieces on display. It averages about 15,000 visitors a day, using proceeds from tickets sold to maintain its operations. Because it’s a huge display, it is often advised to spend a few days or a week if you want to thoroughly check it out. For us uninitiated souls, a day would be more than enough, especially with young kids.
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After descending down to the museum below, we stood in the long line to get our tickets right away, although I was not paying attention other than snapping photos of the place. Suddenly, I noticed somebody poking me on the ribs, and it was my wife, walking away from the line and gestured me to follow her, with a mixed expression of alertness, secrecy and excitement. As any good husband would do, I obeyed without any struggle. “This guy”, she pointed to somebody standing not far from us, “got two spare tickets to sell. They bought extra but don’t need them. Half price!” Sure. As if I was born yesterday. I started to walk away back to the line when my wife stopped me. “Listen, alright?” “He asked us to pay him after we get inside.” Hmm, I guess the tricks have been improved since I was born. Consider myself not too dumb while eager to see a new trick (or get fooled, take your pick), I agreed. The guy pulled out two ticket, one with date on it and the other one is blank, gave to us and then proceeded to the entrance. He waved his tickets to the collectors and then went inside. The check point is kind of like a parking garage entrance you found mostly in the US or any toll booths in the world. You just show your tickets and after they casually take a glance, you are good to go. So we got inside, with kids in the front as there is no entrance fee to kids, teachers and students if you have proper ID. The guy turned corner and pulled out a map to examine, and we stopped next to him. My wife paid him, at half price, although we could pay at little as a third, if we don't want the tickets. He then briefly explained to my wife what was the best routine to check the museum, by using the map. Did I mention he is Chinese? So the map is the Chinese version (Louvre has maps in all major languages). While he was doing the guided tour on the map to my wife, I took several pictures, just in case. A few minutes later, he went away and I looked at his back and said to my wife: "Smart guy. Good business". You probably don't know that the locals can buy the tickets at huge discounts or even free (to students and such), and many tickets do not have dates, which means you can in theory, reuse them after a day's visit. With increasing visitors from China these days, it's just a matter of time before somebody's brain starts to take advantage of this. By the way, when the smart guide gave my wife the tips about the museum, there were several Chinese visitors gathered around and closed in on us to listen to the conversation as it was in Mandarin. This reminded me the scene you often see in the train ticket windows or bank teller windows in most of China. They would come very close to you, as if we have been friends for a long long time. We have been in the Sates for so long and have long forgotten the compact living environments we were used to. These visitors are well dressed with somewhat naive curiosity on their face. Needless to say, they must be from the mainland. I have many incidents of hurt-feelings when I first came here, as they could easily spot us even we have the same clothes. I hate to admit but I know I have gained the same super natural ability by now.
Louvre is a huge palace, first as a residence since Phillips II cica 12th century, and by the time of Louis XIV in 17th century moved to Palace de Versailles, it slowly evolved into the museum as we see today. It has 3 wings, which are the three sides of the palaces and you need the tickets to go from one wing to another. Each wing got several floors, 3 if memory serves but could be 4 easily as I wasn’t paying attention, rather just following along and snapping pictures. There are many world famous paintings, including the Mona Lisa, which turned out to be a joke, in my opinion. First of all, the signs are everywhere, just like you are about 200 miles away from Orlando and start to see road signs of Disney everywhere. When you get there, you realized that the room is jam packed with people who just want to take a picture to show that they have ARRIVED. There is a loose parameter set up around the glass-window guarded painting, about 12 feet (4m) away, if not more. I am not sure if the glass on the window is special glass or something but I could swear through the somewhat thick glass nobody would know if it’s real or fake. For all know, they could just put a photograph there and nobody would be able to tell. All but a few were standing there looking at the picture camera-less. I am not sure if they really “know” or just pretending. To me, I don’t see anything special at all. No mystery to me. No shocking mesmerizing sensation, just a girl waiting to be painted and put on a smile, whether or not she’s a guy or pregnant or stole your wallet I could care less. Then again, I am probably no better than a door knob when comes to art appreciation. There!
Other master pieces like Venus of Milo didn’t really get me too excited neither. I am not sure why it was as famous as it is. To me, there are several pieces that are much better and refined, including paintings on ceilings. Some with art sense hinted that it matters which one came earlier and original. Or missing a piece of body parts makes one wonder how it should look. Sounds strange to me. But what do I know. It said so in the guide so that must be true. Right?
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The kids were excited to see so many paintings, in part, because they were cool (this is what my 5yr old just typed on my computer so I’ll keep it). Also, I think they found good use of their cameras, as we each have one in our hands. They did take some good photos and the older boy actually made a slide show and presented to his whole class upon his return.
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楼主
先来一张大厅的（忘了是哪一个馆了）