The largest monument in Paris

If you looked at every piece of art for 3 seconds in the Louvre, you would be there for three months.

Thankfully, but also unfortunately, I was only there for three hours. I got to see the Mona Lisa. OK, everybody says that she is tiny. I disagree. It's a decent sized painting. Not super big but not as small as every says. I also got to see the Madonna of Chancellor Rolin which is a Dutch oil painting by Jan Van Eyke. It was pretty cool . . .

The building itself is a work of art.

The pyramid was so intricate.

Everyone was gathered around two things, the Mona Lisa and this headless angel.

This one looked familiar.

Not sure why, but that guy has a cleaver through his head. Maybe he upset somebody.

This one was cool. It was like a ginormous Last Supper. 

This is my friend Mona. She is visited by a bunch of people each day. 

I tried to get a shot with her but there were too many people.

The Coronation of Napoleon. There was a copy of it at Versailles but it was a fake because one of the girls in white on the left side was wearing a pink dress. In this one, the original, all the girls are wearing white.

Here you can see a close up of Napoleon crowning himself.

Again, the building itself was art.

I really liked this one. It is the temptation of Jesus. I love that Satan is darker and Jesus is lighter. 

Everything has meaning in art.

Jan Van Eyke and his Madonna of Chancellor Rolin. I love the Dutch oil paintings because of the intricacy. My favorite of his was the Arnolfini Portrait which wasn't in the Louvre.

These two were from the same painting. I just didn't think I'd be doing it justice by getting it in one blurry piece, so I chopped it in half.

That was my time at the Louvre. After we took this last shot, some lady asked me to take her picture. I did it for her but I told my friends I would NEVER do that with my own camera. Someone could easily walk away with my camera and all its pictures. I could have easily walked away with her camera. . . I didn't though. I guess people just trust others too much. Either that or I just look very innocent. :D

Versailles and her gardens

So Louis XIV built this huge palace called Versailles. But the funny thing is that the gardens are like a gazillion times bigger than the palace. My camera died by the time we were done but it was really cool. There were sun king logos everywhere. Louis was considered the sun king because his parents finally had a son which they considered a gift from the gods. Everything was covered in gold because the sun is golden. The entire palace revolved around the sun, especially the hall of mirrors.

The gardens stretch for maybe even a mile.

I'm a little teapot.

To all the glories of France

The Sun King

Hall of mirrors. I think it would be a really cool commercial if someone cleaned all the mirrors and windows with windex. It'd be like "They use windex to clean the hall of mirrors. Windex works for royalty."

Oh and just an update on the CD with all my pics. I just bought some and they will be coming to a mailbox near you shortly. Thanks for reading!

Le canard nage sur le lac

When someone would ask Matt to say something in English he would say "The duck swims on the lake." It was our inside joke. The French kids didn't really get it. Lol, good times.

This post is dedicated to Paul, Nick and Alex.
We miss you and hope that you are walking with our Father in heaven now, watching over us. 

You were taken from our community too soon and we will remember you guys forever. 

I will always cherish any memories we shared, whether it be from elementary school or AP English class. 

Let's all stand on our desks during class. Thanks for the laughs Alex.