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Smile, mysteriously

N Nagaraj

Hmmm... Your neighbour is going to Europe and was going on and on about her plans for three full days in Paris -- the Eiffel tower, Champs Elysees, the Louvre and the sidewalk bistros... And you suddenly want to know more about the Louvre.

Because you've always dreamt about seeing the Mona Lisa. Because you were curious about da Vinci when you read The Agony and the Ecstasy. Or, simply because you'd like to tell the neighbour a thing or two about the Louvre.

Time to slug it out at a library? The officials at the Louvre have made all that unnecessary. Just visit www.louvre.fr.

The links from the home page are divided into three distinct groups: one takes you to the palace, the museum and the collections; another to activities at the Louvre exhibitions, programmes in the auditorium, and tours and workshops; and the last to visitor information, publications and databases.

In addition, you can also buy tickets online and even shop online.

The history of the Louvre is well documented. Exhibits are divided into categories such as paintings, prints and drawings, oriental antiquities etc. to make navigation easy. Each category has a note on the history of the collection and ment ions its location in the museum.

By the way, you can get to the Mona Lisa by following this route: Click on collections in the Home Page, and select Paintings. Further, select Major Works, and Italy: 16th Century. Click the Mona Lisa image on that page for a larger view and s upporting documentation. And you can tell your neighbour that she'll find the Mona Lisa in the first floor of the wing left of the Sully. Ha!