Encore, Paris!

Hmmm… Paris. What to say??

We just had a wonderful time in Paris, again. It’s still my favorite city to visit in the world.
We chose to focus on museums this visit. We even hit a few for a second time. As you can tell, these images come from the Rodin Museum. We loved his bronze work. It’s so easy to feel the emotion and understand why he’s the most acclaimed artist since Michelangelo.

We also visited the Musee d’Orsay. If you’re not familiar with this
spectacular gallery, it’s a train station built at the turn of the 20th century that was turned into a museum to pick up in art history where the Louvre left off, Impressionism. It’s a great venue and a work of art in itself.


Through the clock is Sacre Coeur.

We also visited the magnificent Chateau de Versailles. What began as a hunting lodge in 1624, became the full time home of the French Sun King, Louis XIV in 1682. His heirs, Louis XV and the infamous Louis XVI and wife, Marie-Antoinette also ruled from this palace.
This is the Chapel, where the King had daily mass.

Here is the bust of the Sun King himself. He was revealed in this piece of marble by the great Bernini.

The rooms of the chateau were stunning.

In 1678 the back terrace was turned into the most famous (and grand) room, the Hall of Mirrors. To give you an idea of the scale, it measures 250 feet long by 35 feet wide and 40 feet high. Its massive proportions are added to by it’s historic significance. In 1919, Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles which ended World War I.

The artwork adorning the walls is often of the royal family. In this case, it’s the infamous Marie-Antionette and her children. Pictured are her eldest daughter, Madame Royale, the Dauphin (AKA heir apparent), Louis-Joseph (born in 1781), stands next to her while the third child (the future Louis XVII, born in 1785) is on her knees. This was painted a mere 6 years before the start of the French revolution. In some ways, the queen began the bloody revolution. However, the much-attributed phrase, “Let them eat cake” was probably not even uttered by Queen Marie-Antoinette (although it may have been). Similar to the way the Boston tea Party united the American colonies against the British, a certain diamond necklace united the French proletariat against the aristocrats and monarchy.

Here’s the story of the necklace and the queen: there is a young noble woman (on the verge of bankruptcy) who plays two men’s belief (the Cardinal of France and a jeweler) that she has the favor of the queen (Marie-Antoinette). So, she convinces the Cardinal to buy a 2,800 carat diamond necklace from the jeweler, give it to the noble woman, who would then (supposedly) give it to the queen. The idea was that the cardinal would then be able to gain the queens favor with this gift. Unfortunately, the necklace never made it to the queen and when she got the bill, the pieces fell into place. She and her husband Louis XVI, were furious with the cardinal and his disrespect. So, they demanded a public trial. Unfortunately, the cardinal was acquitted, but the noble woman was found guilty, flogged and imprisoned. However, since the jury had rebuked the French sovereign (a new precedent), it in fact marked a turning point and signaled the impending revolution.
Now, here is the view from the back of the chateau, overlooking the immense gardens.

Here is the view back to the chateau.

Next stop was the Panthéon in the Latin Quarter (just up the street from our hotel). It began as a church to St Genevieve, but has become a burial place for famous/influential French. One of the more interesting residents is Voltaire. Here is his crypt.

Here is the inside of the Panthéon, with my favorite touring partner.

Also housed inside is something called a Foucault Pendulum. This was a device conceived by the French scientist of the same name in 1851 who wanted to physically prove the rotation of the earth (although that was already commonly accepted knowledge). His experiment was to mount a weight at the end of a long wire, release it and watch as the weighted bob moved a known amount with each passing arc, proving the Earth rotated underneath the swinging weight. This created quite a fervor in both the academic and and layman worlds. It was tangible proof that the Earth rotates in an easy to set up experiment.
As a side note, if you perform this experiment at the poles, the bob will trace a complete circle in the 24 hours the Earth make one complete revolution. Here, it went just over 270 degrees each day. You can see, it’s just about 5 PM in this picture.

As night falls in the city of romance, the lights come on to illuminate sight like the stunning Notre Dame. Construction took about 200 years, but was finally completed around 1250.



The metro is a great way to get from site to site in the city.

We also decided to go back to a couple familiar, but never common sites that are great after dark. The first is of course, the Arc de Triomphe.

This relief is called the Departure of the Volunteers of 1792, or commonly La Marseillaise. This is interesting because it’s a unique sculpture where Liberty is cheering on the French people to rid themselves of tyranny. Also, the French national anthem is La Marseillaise and its lyrics are very similar to the emotion seen in this sculpture.

This time, we decided to visit the small museum in the top and go out to view the city from the top of the landmark where all roads converge.

Then, over to the quintessential monument to late 19th century French engineering.

A view from the second floor of the tower.

This is from 400′, looking up to the 1,000′ peak of the tower.

Reflecting back on the beauty of this landmark.

Yet again, we fell in love with the city. It was a great way to complete our re-connection time together, in the city of romance, love and science.
But, now we must wait a little while before traveling again.
So, until then.
–Jim