Musée du Louvre

Walking around in Louvre today gave me the feeling that France was a more powerful nation in the old days. Also wondering how did they get the means to build cultural places like the museum in Louvre and all the other fantastic buildings you find in and around Paris like e.g. Versailles? France with Ludvig XIV and Napoleon were certainly (probably) more powerful than both Charles de Gaulle and Francois Hollande(?). I will maybe get the same thinking when walking around in St. Petersburg or London comparing with todays Putin and Cameron. I don`t get the same kind of thinking when I walk around in the small "city village" of Oslo though, with one main street only and a relatively peaceful history not able to conquer anything since the wikings sailed around with their ships robbing what they could get of valuable material things to bring back home.