Sorry,we don't have any photos
yet from Day 2, because we didn't have the digital camera along. If you
want to know, we visited the Eiffel Tower, the sewers of Paris (yes,
Virginia, you can tour the sewers of Paris, and it's fascinating if
you're Victor Hugo or a wastewater engineer), Notre Dame and the
crypt beneath it, and the Louvre. In typical tourist fashion, we had
only an hour and a half or so to spend at the Louvre, so we hit the
highlights: classical sculpture and Italian Renaissance artists.
Naturally, that means the Venus de Milo, the Mona Lisa, and
Michelangelo's The Dying Slave. However, we'll let you in on a
little secret: Both Winged Victory and a Greek figure of Athena
have it all over the Venus de Milo, and Caravaggio's The Death of
the Virgin is ten times better than the Mona Lisa. Your mileage, of
course, may vary.
On Day 3 we took a bicycle tour
that started at the Eiffel Tower and hit most of the important sites in
downtown Paris, including the Ecole Militaire, les Invalides, Napoleon's
tomb, the Rodin Museum, the Alexander III bridge, the Pont Beaux Arts,
the Tuileries, the Assemblie Nationale, and the aforementioned Notre
Dame. Afterward it was on to the Musee d'Orsay, where the Impressionists
and post-Impressionists just go on and on. Plenty of Monet, Manet, and
Sisley, but I think we were more impressed (ha!) with Degas and Renoir.
Not to mention Seurat and his ilk, Gauguin, and last but not least, our
buddy Vince. I saw The Bedroom at Arles at the Chicago Art
Institute a while back, but now it's in the Musee d'Orsay. That painting
is just following me around the world... We wrapped up the evening at
dinner with Sarah's friend Lynn. |
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Statue of somebody
outside the Ecole Militaire. |
The Ecole
Militaire. Napoleon studied here and graduated last in his class. |
The modern
memorial is the Peace Wall. Very Maya Lin-esque. Naturally, the Peace
Wall is located on the Champs de Mars (Fields of War), right across from
the Ecole Militaire. It was a particularly appropriate time to visit the
Peace Wall. The Arabic word for peace is salaam, in case you
were wondering. |
Napoleon's tomb is
inside this domed church. |
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Another statue
behind Les Envalides, which was built as a hospital for wounded
soldiers. I don't know who this guy is, but you can't throw a rock in
Paris without hitting a statue. |
Sarah listens in
as John, our bicycle tour guide, talks about a colleague of his who took
off all his clothes and had his picture taken with Rodin's The
Thinker. |
American flag at
half-staff outside the U.S. Embassy. I don't know whether you noticed,
but the French flag atop the Ecole Militaire was also at half-staff. |
Statue in
Tuileries gardens, where we ate lunch. |
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Here's old
Charlemagne himself, right next to Notre Dame du Paris.
We're told that equestrian
statues follow a code: both front legs up means the rider died in
battle; one front leg up means he was injured in battle; both front legs
down means he died peacefully. In case you're wondering, all the horse
statues we saw were anatomically correct. |
And here's Notre
Dame. It's on an island (the Ile de la Cite) in the middle of the Seine.
Beneath it are ruins dating back to the time of Christ, when the Parisi
tribe of Franks first settled the area. You can actually go underneath
the square and see some of the ruins, but frankly, they're not as
interesting as the cathedral. |
Small glimpse of
altar statue and windows, through one of the front doors of Notre Dame. |
Carving detail
from a Notre Dame doorway. Eve chows down on the apple while Adam and
the serpent look on. |
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Saint Denis kept
the faith, but lost his head. |
The Last Judgment,
from another Notre Dame doorway. |
Detail from the
Last Judgment. An angel and a demon weigh souls and choose up their
respective teams.
We didn't go inside today,
because we had been inside the day before. |
The Pont du Beaux
Arts, the oldest and reputedly the most romantic bridge in Paris. I
think that's the Academie Francaise in the background, but I was too
busy thinking about Sarah to pay attention to the tour guide. I don't
know why ... must've been the bridge. |
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More flags at
half-staff outside the Assemblee Nationale. |
Inside the Musee
d'Orsay, here I am with the Florentine Singer by Dubois. I
don't envy his mandolin (I have a few of my own), but that is a very
nice codpiece. |
Poppies
by Monet. |
A Renoir that I
didn't catch the name of. |
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One of Degas'
famous ballerina paintings. He's known for his demure and innocent
dancers, but the Musee d'Orsay also has a good collection of his
pastels, many of which are extremely racy nudes. |
Another famous
Degas, the Blue Dancers. Speaking of blue, did I mention his
nude pastels? I did? Oh. Sarah thinks Degas might have been a peeping
Tom. |
Another Renoir.
His ladies are always demure, and if he did any nude pastels, they're
not at the Musee d'Orsay. I don't know of any other painter who used
light the way Renoir did. You can't appreciate his technique unless you
actually see the paintings; so much of it just doesn't translate into
reproductions. |
If you saw Bean,
the feature film with Rowan Atkinson's annoying little Mr. Bean
character, you might have been fooled into thinking Whistler's Mother is
in England. It ain't. |
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Recognize this
guy? |
Recognize him now? |
Here's a Van Gogh
I wasn't familiar with. |
Here's one I was
familiar with. I seem to recall taking a picture of The Bedroom at
Arles, but apparently it didn't turn out. |
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A famous Gauguin. |
A famous Seurat. |
A pointillist
rendering of Notre Dame; I forgot the name of the artist. It isn't
Seurat, but was done in his style. |
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