I featured the over-the-top ornate facade of the Louvre a few days ago. That was from Cour Carrée, one of the oldest sections of this sprawling complex. Today, we see the other side of the building directly in its outlandish glory.

One thing is for sure, unlike Las Vegas, which can also be crazy ornate, France’s buildings look genuine — they don’t look like cheap knock-offs of something else. And, while it’s not my favorite kind of architecture, I find the details fascinating. These buildings were constructed in the early 17th century to make the palace as royal as possible with the overwhelming philosophy of the more, the better.

Contrast today’s design with this earlier facade I featured. Still, ornate by our modern standards, it’s remarkably restrained, constructed several hundred years earlier. The Louvre is a series of interconnected buildings added over hundreds of years with varying embellishments. Overall, it looks harmonious since the scale and materials of the building are similar.

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