Elsien's Traveblogue

No peace for the wicked! The first Sunday of the month, the Louvre is free and I decided I'd brave the crowds so I could at least try and find the paintings I want, without the frustrations of queueing for a ticket and then the crowds as well!
I needed Botticelli, who unfortunately is an Italian Renaissance painter, so his work is not far from the wretched Mona Lisa .... So, a lot of crowd to brave and it took me a while to find the three small and one slightly larger painting through the crowds ... However, the two frescoes by him right at the beginning of the corridor, which almost everyone charges past, are perfect illustrations of what I have been reading the last few days ... If anyone stops at all, they just exclaim: “Ah, Botticelli” (usually in an Italian accent, there seem to be a lot of Italians about. Don't they have enough Renaissance art in their own country?) and charge on relentlessly towards Mona Lisa.
Found my old friend Caravaggio as well, but there are just too many other paintings around to do him justice. It really makes me appreciate the National Gallery in London: Not only are there better Botticellis, they are displayed better and, if there are too many people, you just leave and come back some other time – it's free after all. Here, every time you want to look at something, it's 9€, or 6€ if you go late afternoon some days.
Before I went to the Louvre, I went to Mass at St Eustache, at Les Halles, a gorgeous church which expresses some of the Hegelian idea of beauty, a beautiful service with an excellent choir and, my main reason for going, the most fabulous huge church organ (plus a little-ish one to accompany the choir). Back for a beer after all these exertions and a bit more study ...