The Louvre! Nepolean and Middle Ages

Apparently somebody, I'll try not to name names, forgot to put the memory card in the camera, which is the equivalent of forgetting to put film in. Again, I'll do my best to keep this person anonymous, but how anybody could forget to do something like that when headed to the Louvre is beyond me.

I'm sure you're all highly disappointed with this person, I know I am, but I think if we try really hard, we can forgive them. And then send them some Mexican food for them to eat to show the sincerity of our forgiveness. Addressed specifically to Josh...though I'm not saying he's the dude who forgot the card. Besides, why argue about who forgot what when we can send me Mexican food?

And to make up for it, here are the pictures anyway...just not taken by me:

http://www.google.com/images?q=the+louvre+napoleon+iii&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=sPt&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&prmd=iv&source=lnms&tbs=isch:1&ei=v1-fTJ3CFcuP4Aag5PmzDQ&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&sqi=2&ved=0CA4Q_AU&biw=1280&bih=602

We also saw the middle ages: ...couldn't find any pictures. I blame the internet. And since Al Gore claims he invented it; I blame Al Gore.

And we flew through the French sculptures of the 2nd and 12th(maybe) centuries: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:French_sculptures_in_the_Louvre

Anyway. The detail involved in the Napoleon rooms and the middle ages area is crazy. Whole giant rooms where every inch of everything is gilded with gold and shaped like flowers or leaves or twirly things. Every chair, couch, piano, light fixture. I can't imagine how long each room took.

Same with the middle ages stuff. On a smaller scale, tons of little stone or wood carvings usually depicting scenes from the Bible. Unbelievable detail though.

And one of the sculptures was really impressive. It was a guy in a shirt, but with chain leg armor on and boots, laying on a couch. It was carved in stone or marble or something, but I wanted to reach out and touch it just to make sure it wasn't leather. That's how well he showed every crease and ripple. I think Ben was just as impressed as me. Probably.

He did a very good job though and didn't scream or anything. And before he got hungry, he was going into each new section shouting (which is frowned upon), "Cool!! Look at this!!"

Also, speaking of frowned upon, I put Ben on my shoulders so he could see stuff better (in the middle ages area where the ceiling was like 50 ft high), and after about 5 min of walking around, I had 2 guards run up to me at the same time yelling something in French that amounted to "No kids on your shoulders!!".

I complied with this new, undefined, height regulation despite not understanding the necessity of it.

The end. Food time!