Of course everyone goes to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa — it was the first thing on Nigel’s must-see list — but there are other cool things there too. Like a moat! An actual moat, leftover from the original fortress that stood on the site 800 years ago.
There is also what instantly became Nigel’s (and my) favorite sculpture ever, of a child strangling a duck:
(Nigel disapproves of ducks and children — nasty creatures — but kids may have gone up slightly in his estimation after this.)
There is also a lot of ancient stuff in the Louvre, which isn’t exactly a secret, but is sort of unexpected. I agree with Nigel that when you think “art of ancient Egypt,” the first places that spring to mind are the Met in New York and, of course, that museum in Cairo. But we have both changed our thinking on this.
Way cool dude from the ancient Near East (Assyrian, maybe?):
