The Louvre, if not the world’s largest museum in area (and it may be), is certainly one of the most difficult to navigate, spread out over many connected buildings and galleries. But one of the rewards for visiting it is the possibility of a sudden unexpected view, such as the one above.
We had been in the Cour Puget earlier, passing its exhibit of sculpture from royal collections on our way to elsewhere. Just one more confusing passage on our way to the Flemish painters. But on the way down, from a stairwell window, we suddenly saw it in a different light.
The Cour Puget, by the way, is one of the newer parts of the Louvre. It’s an internal courtyard of the Richelieu building. From about 1790 to 1989, the building was occupied by the Finance Ministry and the courtyard was open to the sky. A 1993 glass canopy made possible the space you see.
