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I’m going to let you in on a little secret guys. The Louvre is freaking HUGE. I know, I know, you’ve heard that a million times before. So had I, but it didn’t really hit me until I stepped foot inside it. As soon as we were heading down the escalators from the Pyramid entrance, though, I knew one of us was going to get lost. I just never thought it would be me.
We chose our time to visit the Louvre strategically. Even though we had been outside of it the morning before, the line was way too long for our tastes. Instead, we chose to come back the next afternoon. With only a few hours left until closing time, the line was way shorter. We got in in no time and still had enough time to explore, well, one little corner of the museum. Like I said, the Louvre is huge.
We didn’t have much of a game plan, which in hindsight probably wasn’t our best idea. So, without any idea what we were doing, we picked one direction and went in it. Pretty soon, we were face to face with a sphinx.
After getting up close and personal with a sphinx, the Louvre didn’t have to do much more to impress me. But impress me it did, because soon enough we had found the Greek statues. Anyone who knows me knows I love ancient Greece, so it should be no surprise that I almost had to be dragged out of this room.
There was still so much to see, though, and soon enough we found another room to distract me.
This room is where it all went a little bit wrong though… Distracted by the opulent guided ceiling, I didn’t notice when the rest of my group moved on. Feeling more than a little bit like a child lost in a grocery store (except that I was a 20 year old lost in a really, really giant museum), I quickly rushed to the best landmark I could think of…
The Mona Lisa
To be perfectly honest, I couldn’t be prouder of myself for thinking to go to the Mona Lisa. Thinking back on it, it was a damn smart thing to do. I knew my group would have to show up there at some point, and on the off chance that one of them turned their data on and checked their messages, they wouldn’t have any trouble finding me. Anywhere else in the Louvre, I would’ve been a goner. But the Mona Lisa has signs pointing to her every twenty feet, so I was in a pretty damn good position.
About ten minutes later, one of the girls messaged me back saying they were on their way. I waited impatiently on the other side of the room, irrationally worried that they weren’t going to find me. Of course they did, and as it turned out they hadn’t been the ones to move on without me… I had been the one to move on without them! I was just so blind that I hadn’t seen them on the other side of the room and had assumed that they had left without me. Not going to lie, I felt pretty stupid after we realized that.
The funniest thing about this whole story? Even though I spent fifteen minutes in the same room as her, I never got a picture of the Mona Lisa. Everyone else did though.
Reunited and it feels so good
After a reunion that probably would have been more appropriate after fifteen years of not seeing each other than fifteen minutes, we moved on to explore as much more of the Louvre as we could in the hour or so that we had. This time, I kept a close eye on the other girls. I already had my Louvre anecdote and I didn’t really feel the need for another.
Our last stop of the day was in the ancient Egypt section, where we soaked up just a little bit more history before being ushered out of the museum.
Even though we would have needed several days to truly experience everything that the Louvre has to offer, I was honestly glad we only had a few hours there. Although we only just scratched the surface, I think if we had spent much longer there we would have gotten really worn out really fast. Now, there’s still loads to see if I ever make it back to Paris. And, I already have a game plan if I get lost again.
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