We had a great time at Versailles, but it’s a perhaps little known fact that on Fridays the Louve is open until 9:30 p.m.  The museum is significantly less crowded, and there were some things that we hadn’t seen on our first trip. So, after grabbing a quick dinner, we headed back to the Louve.

We were hunting for a statue called “Cupid’s Kiss.”  Along the way, we found another statue we all liked, “Mercury Abducting Psyche.”

We liked how the statue conveyed a sense of spiraling motion even though it was made of unmoving bronze.  Cassie felt compelled to do some spiraling herself.

The mythology behind the statue was also cool.  Psyche was Cupid’s girlfriend, but she was a mortal.  Cupid, who was Venus’s son, was a god.  So, Venus thought Psyche was not good enough for her son and put Psyche through a series of ordeals, including requiring Psyche to get a vial from the underworld, shown in the statue in Psyche’s hand at the top.  Eventually, Jupiter (Zeus to the Greeks) was impressed enough to turn Psyche into a god.  Here, Mercury is taking Psyche to Mount Olympus to become a god.

Across the room we found the sculpture we’d been looking for, too!  It was “Cupid’s Kiss”!

We also discovered that we only knew half the title of this sculpture.  The full title is “Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss.”  Why did she have to be revived?  Remember that vial from the Underworld?  There is it is behind her at the bottom!

Venus gave Psyche strict instructions not to open it, but Psyche’s curiosity got the better of her.  You know how things go in mythology.  She opened it, sniffed some nasty underworld fumes, and nearly died.  Cupid swooped in and revived her.

We continued to wander through the expansive museum.  Here is a smattering of some of the pieces that we liked.

The way she was rubbing her foot made the marble look so soft even though it’s literally hard as rock.

It was amazing how the marble was carved to look like diaphanous cloth.

The detail was phenomenal.

Yep.  That’s marble.

We also took advantage of the lack of crowds to see some of the more famous paintings.  We accidentally walked by the Mona Lisa.  She asked to take a selfie with us.

Then the security guards started ushering everyone out.  We were forced to walk all too quickly by many famous paintings.  We couldn’t stop to take pictures or enjoy them, but we were excited to see them.

Between the late night at the Louve and our exciting day at Versailles, we were all exhausted.

Still, it was one of our best days in Europe so far!

-Will