My European Honeymoon (Completed)

Chapter Thirteen

The comparison of the modern pyramid being surrounded by French classical buildings on all sides took my breath away. It really was something I never could have imagined, even having seen the site before on the web, it was completely different in person. Before we headed inside, I turned around, trying to take in all its splendor. Even the idea that a road ran right through the museum grounds seemed fascinating to me. "Dolcezza, you might want to rein in your awed face."

"No thank you. I can't believe more people aren't walking around with their jaws dragging along the floor. How can you just be normal when surrounded by all this?" He was just his normal Luca self, as though it was an everyday occurrence to him.

"It's beautiful, but it just doesn't move me in the same way it does you."

"Well, at least I am moved by hundreds of years of history and culture rather than some staged dessert." I stuck my tongue out at him. In response, he pulled me to him and laid his lips on mine. I felt like the whole world was spinning around us.

Luca seemed to know exactly where he wanted to go and it was clear he had been to the museum before, not that it was surprising to me. Living in Paris for any amount of time and you would visit The Louvre. It was like an unwritten rule in every rental agreement, surely? It wasn't as crowded as I expected, but with such a large building there were probably thousands of people roaming around and yet it still seemed serene.

Luca pulled me to a stop in front of some exposed brick work. I knew instantly what it was. "The foundation walls. I figured you would want to see them."

"I did. Did you know that they are the oldest part of the museum? That the museum was never meant to be a museum at all, but was originally a wall built to keep the Vikings out. The wall was built into the foundations of the museum."

"No, but I do know that every time you light up and speak a mile a minute about architecture, I fall a little more in love with you." His words might have had more of an impact had we not been standing in front of that wall. I knew that Luca didn't understand my fascination, but there was something comforting about looking upon something that had survived for so long. As though it gave me faith that I could survive anything too. That wall had survived wars, the fall of the monarchy and numerous weather disasters. In 1910, the streets of Paris were flooded and submerged for two whole months and The Louvre was heavily affected, but still the wall persisted in its survival.

I didn't need Luca to understand my fascination with such things, but I knew he respected it. He loved seeing me animated by such things in the same way I loved seeing him animated by culinary works of art. I didn't understand it, but I still loved him for the passion it instilled in him. It was amazing that we were in a building full of priceless works of art and yet he knew that the simple wall was the biggest highlight for me. Most visitors probably walked straight past it and knew nothing of its significance.

"Do you want to touch it?"

"I can't reach that far."

"But do you want to?"

"Of course I do." He started pulling me along again and the signs indicated we were heading to the parking area. The idea that a building like that included something as ugly as a parking garage felt a little jarring. I was clueless as to why he had suddenly gotten so excited. Then I saw it. Right at the entrance to the parking area there was a section of the railings that was nearly touching the wall. We climbed a few steps and I took a deep breath before placing my palm on the cool stone. The idea that I was touching something that someone had touched, carried hundreds of years ago was odd. It was like I was holding hands with the past.

"Shall we go and look at that pesky famous art now?"

"Yeah, we probably should." We strolled through the galleries but it wasn't the same. I couldn't even decide why. The art was just as old in some cases, or at least close enough. Then it dawned on me. The wall was a symbol of me and my life, but the art wasn't. Humanity had gone out of their way to protect the artwork. The Mona Lisa was evacuated during World War Two, because it was valued by humanity and needed to be protected. The foundations had never received that sort of love and protection, yet it had stood the test of time anyway. Just like I had. No one had been there to protect and guide me, but I had survived.

The art was beautiful, of course, but it wasn't quite the same, not for me anyway. The domed glass above us that would have let light stream into the space during the day seemed like absolute genius, though.

Our last stop for viewing was the inverted glass pyramid. It was designed the same as the huge one that made up the entrance, but was on a smaller scale. The point of the pyramid was low enough to touch. It really was a masterpiece. The idea that someone could put something so out of character with the rest of the architecture of the building and yet for it to be so at home, was pure genius. The biggest intrigue with me and architecture was how someone could see the whole finished project as a whole before they even started building. The idea of having that sort of complex thinking was a real talent.

When we first walked into the gift shop, the first thing that struck me was that everything had the Mona Lisa on it. It felt tacky and like it devalued other works of art. I picked a fridge magnet for Mamma which depicted Madonna and Child by Paolo Veronese, who was born in Verona, and used it as inspiration for his own name. It seemed fitting, especially given her faith. I wanted to get everyone something from our trip but it turned out to be harder than I expected.