The Cour Carree, a huge courtyard at the eastern end of the Louvre, was one of the more spectacular things I'd expected to see on this trip. I especially wanted to enter the Louvre from this end, and to have Lee experience this also. As you can see above, in this copyright-free photo from Wiki, it is outstanding. What you can't feel from the photo is its ability to make my breathing come faster and to astonish my mind and senses. (Click to enlarge the photo!) Entering this way also makes the greater Louvre all that much more impressive, because the Cour Carree is a "small" rectangle compared with what you see as you step through the archway leading out. But as we entered the Cour Carree from the Rue de Rivoli, I was in for a shock.
There was no wide-open majestic space. There was only this.
I looked left.
I looked right. I could not believe it. So they're going to put some mural face on the stupid ugly office building they've erected in the middle of one of Paris's most magnificent masterpieces to give it a little more sense of space? Please. I got depressed. Accidents happen, terrorism happens, wars happen, and they destroy artistic landmarks. They are all worse than what is happening here, but they usually are not the result of an idiot decision made by "the good guys." I wondered who this idiot was. I wanted to talk to him (or her). Again. I could not believe this. If this travesty of a prefab office building is a temporary thing, a renovation, then fine. I'll eat my words, but signs are that it may be one of those "just-for-the-duration" edifices that never goes away. Somebody tell me I'm wrong.
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