Art Buchwald revisited
 

The six minute LouvreSaturday Evening Post, Oct, 1984 by Art BuchwaldAny sportsman will tell you that the only three things to see in the Louvre are the "Winged Victory of Samothrace," the "Venus de Milo" and the "Mona Lisa." The rest of the sculpture and paintings are just so much window dressing for the Big Three, and one hates to waste time in the Louvre when there is so much else to see in Paris. Ever since the Louvre acquired these works of art, amateurs from all over the world have been trying to cut down the time it takes to see them. Before the war the world record was held by three Scandinavians, who had managed to make the course in seven minutes thirty-three seconds. This record stood until 1935, when a britisher, Mergenthaller Waisleywillow, paced by his Welsh wife, did it in seven minutes flat. Waisleywillow in his first attempt made it in six minutes and forty-nine seconds, but was disqualified when he forgot to make a complete circle of the "Venus de Milo." The record stood until 1938, when a Stockholm man, known as the Swedish Cannonball, introduced sneakers and made it in six minutes and twenty-five seconds.

I walked thru every gallery of the Louvre recently - in and out of the museum in 45 minutes - seeing the big 3 plus passing by everything else.

ttt

Why not put them by the front door?!
:))

TD - that is a GREAT idea! Love it! And while doing that, why not move the Eiffel Tower onto the Louvre grounds or the park next door - think of all the time you will save not having to go clear to the other side of town. If we keep accumulating Paris sites together in sort of a Parisland, we could accomodate all of the posters who ask what to do with one day in Paris - they wouldn't have to give up a thing. Wait - they already did that in Las Vegas. Hey! That will avoid the pesky transatlantic trip too.

My French son take the cake

when they were passing thru Rome one day in before a night train to Paris he and gal friend lied in a park most of the day

I asked him if he caw the Colosseum and he said 'no' but they did see a postcard in the train station with it on it and that was enough.

He also went to Amsterdam for a week and only saw the Sex and Marijuna/Hashish museums

tdudette, your comment reminds me of this week's New Yorker.
All the world's famous landmarks are all in one place.

cigal - my husband and I recalled it as the "3-minute Louvre" (we've done it more than once, so maybe 6 minutes altogether :-))

Hi cig,

I had the opportunity to visit Paris not long after Buchwald's column came out.

Unfortunately, they were doing some renovation work and I was delayed by crowds of tourists. My time was a little under 10 min.

On my next visit, I was able to do the Louvre in about 8 min.

((I))

Rats, cigalechanta, I don't get NYer anymore (took for the year before we actually visited the city-good idea, eh?) but will see if I can find a copy.

I think the perceived "foil the stranger" may have its roots in the city-state background of previous centuries!

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/to...0/toc_20090413

for you TDudette!

Herself and I were making our way through the Louvre, stopping here and there when attention was grabbed by a sculpture. Then we hit a traffic obstruction, a milling throng, and realised that we were looking at people looking at the Venus de Milo. I wasn't as taken with her as with some of the other pieces. Perhaps if she wasn't broken...

Then later, in looking-at-pictures mode, we experienced a strange phenomenon: as we advanced from one room to another, an increasing number of people passed through each without seeming to look at anything; The more we advanced, the larger were the crowds just passing through, and the faster they moved, until we seemed to be bobbing in a fast-flowing stream. I was minded of Alice's adventures in Wonderland, and "I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date" -- and then there we were, in the presence of La Giaconda; not near, thanks to security barriers and throngs with cameras, but in the same room as her.

We almost missed the Winged Victory, because there was no milling crowd to tell us that this was A Great Work of Art.

Closer to six hours than to six minutes. What's the hurry?

Thanks cigalechanta! Not only the Louvre sites in one place but the icons from all the cities. Great cover, eh?

Maybe Las Vegas has it right (har har). Must have a Cistine Chapel, room of Bernini's and Michael A.'s and a little Ponte Vecchio...the list goes on...

Oh, don't forget Psyche et Amore from Louvre. My DH captioned that-you haven't loved until you've had a man with wings.

Excellent advice, Cigalechanta. This way you can do Paris and London in one day. The European Grand Tour will take just 5 days.

This would be my proposed schedule:

Fly to Europe on a Monday (because many museums are closed on Mondays).

Tuesday morning: Madrid. Allow 7 minutes for the Prado and another 5 minutes for the Reina Sofia Museum.
Tuesday afternoon: Rome. You can do the Collosseum in 2 minutes (if you are elderly or walking impaired, allow 5 minutes more).

Wednesday morning: Vienna. 6 minutes for the Hofburg and 1 minute for St. Stephan Cathedral (you can visit cathedrals very quickly).
Wednesday afternoon: Munich.

Thursday morning: Berlin.
Thursday afternoon: Amsterdam.

Friday morning: London.
Friday afternoon: Paris.

Saturday and Sunday: Èze. The Americans love Èze - I usually spend 5 minutes there, when I am on the Cote d'Azur (this is the only timeframe which I mean seriously).

Very cute 1959! I share your feelings about Eze and am an American.