The Louvre

Café Richelieu @ The Louvre

Hello

Welcome to my first blog post. I decided to start writing my museums and food blog in Paris. A great city with many museums with cafes and restaurants. I hope you enjoy my writing and enjoy exploring the museums and their food places I visit.

There is not much I can add to the great writing that exists about the Louvre in Paris. However, I will give my thoughts on the combined food and museum experience, that the Louvre offers. Food and drink are an important aspect of any museum visit.

January 2019

It was a cold January day when I visited this world famous museum. Arriving in Paris the day before, I had been looking forward to visiting the Louvre for several weeks. I arrived early at the museum during a wintery snow shower. Joining a short queue after taking a few photos of the amazing buildings. After passing security and entering the glass pyramid into the dry and warm. I took the escalator down into the entrance area, it is an overwhelming space. It took me a little while to work out where to start.

An interesting starting point for visitors are the walls of the original fortress, it highlights the defensive building that the Louvre was before it became a palace. They provided an interesting insight into how the Louvre originally looked collection. It provides interesting comparison with the ground floor and its thin decorated palace walls and these fortress walls provide a striking difference. I like the way a buildings architecture can help tell the museum buildings life story and about the different uses over its life.

Café Richelieu

After an entertaining morning I found the Café Richelieu ready for a treat.  I queued for around 10 minutes then I was ushered into the café. I sat down at a comfortable table, they are reasonably closely packed but with enough space to relax and enjoy the experience. Have done a little research I had to have their famous hot chocolate. I also ordered a refreshing glass of freshly squeezed orange juice and a sweet treat chocolate mousse. The service was good attentive without being intrusive.

The hot chocolate is served in a small jug with a pot of cream and a delicious chocolate biscuit. I poured the thick rich chocolate into my cup adding a generous spoonful of cream. I slowly mixed the two in my cup, seeing the cream slowly disappear and the beautiful patterns created as I mixed the two. After a blissful minute or two indulging in the rich thick hot chocolate drink. I turned my attention to my sweet treat. After breaking the thin chocolate shell, it revealed a luscious chocolate mousse, cold chocolatey delight it was excellent.

Denon Wing

Floating on my lunchtime delights, I continued my exploration of this vast museum. I turned my attention to the other wing with its grand gallery. This space in the gallery is wonderful, I really enjoyed strolling and engaging with all the art down this large space. I found the Mona Lisa disappointing luckily the queues were small due to winter. The wider experience gallery was much more fulfilling. A gallery space which contains empty frames, highlighting the lost art during the Nazi period very moving. This wing of the museum also features several fantastically decorated rooms including the Napoleon 3rd’s suite which was a real treat.

The museum is huge and its difficult to see all that it offers in one visit. All the amazing objects make a visit really special. The art and the highly decorated rooms made the trip really special. The Louvre offers a great range of food options for visitors and the Café Richelieu provides a marvelous experience. The bookshop upstairs in one of the shops was great, I really enjoyed exploring the wide range of books with many in English. Overall a great experience and look forward to returning in the future. The café added to a great museum experience, although a little expensive it was a nice treat for a special day out.