In 2002 when I was 14 months old, my parents and I went to Germany to endure 2 weeks’ worth of hospital appointments when they were trying to diagnose me with what we now know as Spinal Muscular Atrophy. As a much-needed break, my parents decided we would spend Labor Day weekend in Paris, because why not?

I only know this based on stories they’ve told me, but the gist is that it was chaos from the beginning. Apparently, my dad booked the reservation at a hotel with an address of something like 1234 Paris St, Paris… spoiler alert: Paris St, Paris doesn’t actually exist and neither did that hotel. So, my poor parents were stuck walking around the streets of Paris with me, until they found an available hotel room.

The stroller they were borrowing from a friend fell apart within the first day we were there, so my parents had to take turns carrying me around the city. They set aside an entire day to visit the beautiful Louvre, but I guess I didn’t appreciate art back then, because I proceeded to scream at the top of my lungs while my parents rushed past the Mona Lisa and Venus di Milo to get me out of there.

Now, I’m 19 years old and I have regrets about how I spent my time abroad. Being physically disabled leads to some challenges in travelling across the country, and I can’t even imagine trying to go across seas. But now, with COVID-19, no one is travelling, and that has encouraged museums to go virtual – including the Louvre. So, I have taken full advantage of these resources being free at the moment, and decided to take a day to go “visit” some beautiful art.

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I started my grand adventure with a simple Google search of “French cafes near me,” after all, I needed to get the full experience. I quickly found that La Belle Rosette was only a ten-minute walk from my dorm room, and I was off! I enjoyed their quaint little area that wasn’t too big, but I imagine it is nice and intimate when you can dine-in. I ordered the Rosaletta panini lunch combo, and my friend got the Mona Lisa panini combo – needless to say, we felt very French.

We carried our treats back to campus and ate outside the Beans café and enjoyed our delicious sandwiches. Then, the real adventure began. I easily found the Louvre’s website, and within a few clicks I had found their virtual galleries.

The galleries’ online experiences were all unique, some went full-on like a Google Earth street view, and some were simple panoramas that you could slide through. A lot of the pieces had zoom-in options and captions of what the name was, who created it, and brief descriptions of what the medium was and/or what they were symbolizing. The only unfortunate thing was that those captions were all in French for most pieces, so I would recommend having a translator at the ready.

You can view the art and filter search results by the room the art is in, or by the exhibit it is included in. I went by exhibit, since I didn’t have any art in mind, and I wanted to experience as much as possible.

There was an exhibit appropriately titled, “Founding Myths: From Hercules to Darth Vader,” that I instantly clicked to view more in-depth. It included sculptures and paintings depicting the Greek and Roman heroes and monsters, and more modern concepts. I couldn’t identify what in the exhibit had to do with Darth Vader or the Star Wars saga but I assumed they may have been mentioned in French or on a sign that was too small to view. I enjoyed the artwork nonetheless. There were even interactive pieces, which I found odd and exciting coming from this prestigious museum. The “What, Where, Who?” light game was really intriguing, as it invited guests to press buttons that controlled different lights to convey the power that color and shadow has on art. Unfortunately, that wasn’t part of the virtual experience, but there was a button explaining the concept.

As I clicked out of that section, I realized something; I apparently had seen the Mona Lisa when I was 14 months old, and I have no memory of it… I should look it up! Sounds simple, it’s bound to be in one of these exhibit links and I’ll be able to tell people, “Yeah, I’ve seen the Mona Lisa… virtually.”

I followed through the list of available virtual exhibits, including the “Remains of the Louvre’s Moat,” saw the Great Sphinx of Tanis and some animal mummies, glanced at some sculptures of Greek deities…

But there was no di Vinci!

I started overthinking it (as I’m prone to do) and convinced myself that maybe they exclude di Vinci’s work from the virtual tours, keeping them as a “hidden” gem only available in-person. Bummed, I started clicking random French buttons thinking I’d find the online giftshop so I could daydream about buying a t-shirt, and then I saw it. Clear as day, in an 8-point font at most, was a link titled, “Mona Lisa Beyond the Glass.” Huzzah! This whole “trip” was worth it!

I was soon enveloped in a 5-minute long video of the curators of the di Vinci exhibit explaining how they have created an exhibit exclusively for the Mona Lisa to be viewed on a virtual reality headset. They explained that every visitor wants to have their moment with the beautiful piece, but due to crowds, people only get an average of 30 seconds in front of her. So, they created a VR-experience that allows you to see the individual layers di Vinci had to use to create the depth and details. There’s even an app anyone can download on their smartphones (for free) that gives you the same exposure to the art. I didn’t install the app since the video was immersive, and instead I downloaded the free exhibit booklet, and learned that it took di Vinci from 1503-1519 to finish the masterpiece.

As a little treat, I perused the online giftshop, oohing and ahhing at all the pretty replicas that could be purchased at a range of €3.00 to €2,500! I considered purchasing a small notebook as a souvenir for this “once in a lifetime” experience, but after calculating shipping, I realized my small notebook was going to cost more than a new hardback novel from Barnes and Noble. So, I decided to simply bookmark the page to look back at and proceed to ooh and ahh at it.

My first and second visits to the Louvre were vastly different – for starters there were far less tears this time around! And even though this recent “trip” was quite unconventional to most, it was probably the best I am going to get, and I enjoyed it! Lately, a lot of people have been talking about what the “new normal” of the world is going to be, and I hope virtual tours are something that sticks around. Not only is it more physically accessible, but it allows people with economic issues to still experience the beauties of the world in an immersive way. After all, isn’t art one thing that everyone should have access to?