Rainy Day Visit 1-3-16

It was rainy all day today, not pouring but just pretty persistent.  We were going to another brocante but the rain cured us of that idea, so we visited the Louvre again.  There is another whole floor in one wing that is nothing but Egyptian artifacts and it's too enticing to pass up.
Our trip down was all Metro today and with one train change we were deposited right at the side gate, which leads to the members entrance, so no strain for us.  The Egyptian floor is in the eastern most wing of the museum so it's kind of a hike to get there but we pretty much knew the way and took the elevator up to the correct floor.
What we didn't know was that in our visits we missed half of one floor on the way, in the original construction they built the building only one room wide.  Later they doubled the width of the building by adding a second set of rooms running the length of the northern most elevation of the old building.  So this second set of rooms has a whole series of apartments decorated in mostly 17th to 19th century that have been contributed by citizens who owned chateaus throughout France and donated period rooms.
There is also a set of 3 small rooms that contain a collection of snuff boxes and watches belonging to royalty and nobility from 18th century France and Europe. Beautifully jeweled and enameled creations that are just dazzling in their design and execution; miniature portraits in jeweled surrounds mounted in gold with enameled interiors given as presents between friends.
Finally we made it to the Egyptian halls and they were even more impressive, more hieroglyphic stonework than you could shake a hammer and chisel at.  Beautiful sculptures in stone, clay, and wood that have survived over 3000 years to marveled at today.  The "Seated Scribe" is the jewel of this wing but there are so many other outstanding pieces that you just move from one to the next in admiration for the abilities of those long ago artists.  I think my favorite of the day was another seated figure in black basalt that just captured my imagination.
At the end of the Egyptian section we were in a far corner and had to transit several rooms to get back to a more central part of the museum.  So even though it killed us, we went through the Greek, Etruscan, and Roman rooms full of black on red pottery and small sculptures, pure torture.
The small Greek sculptures are visually stunning, so lyrical and appealing, a pure visual joy.  They were literally closing rooms off after us as we were leaving so we definitely had a full afternoon today.