Looking west toward the Champs-Elysées, with the Cour Carrée at my back. The green trees in the distance are in the Tuileries Garden.
Before the pyramid was built, the courtyard was a parking lot for the people who worked at the Ministry of Finance offices inside the Richelieu Wing (on the right in the photo). Museum-goers had to negotiate the parking lot and find their entrance through a door on the south side of the courtyard in the Denon Wing (on the left in the photo). Since then, the Ministry was moved out to more modern quarters and the museum space expanded.
Looking back at the Louvre from a café in the Tuileries Garden.
And before modernisme and cars took over, in the place of the parking lot there was a lovely park, not unlike the Batignolles, with trees and lawns, and bronze statues, notably, the Bourgeois de Calaisby Rodin. Sic transit…
ReplyDeletemerci pour ces photos... Paris est une si belle ville !
ReplyDeleteYou were right in a previous reply. I NEED a vacation... from doing nothing.
ReplyDeleteAhhhhhh, I love these photos!
ReplyDeleteJudy
chm, plus ça change...
ReplyDeletechristiane, de rien !
mitch, hehe.
judy, :)
That is fascinating; I didn't know it was an entrance at all, let alone the main one.
ReplyDelete