July 2nd is finally here!!!

Well everyone, in thirty seven hours my dear wife will finally be experiencing Paris next to me instead of 5500 miles away. I can not wait!!! Hopefully I will be able to identify her among the thousands of confused and frustrated travelers at Charles de Gaulle airport. Needless to say, my blog postings may not be any where near as frequent as they have been, however I will do my best to keep things going. At least now there may be acutal pictures of me or Sara on the blog, rather than just large buildings and small paintings. At any rate, keep on checking the blog now and then because the posts will certainly be higher quality, but perhaps not higher quantity. She's finally coming out here. Wahoooooo!!

Salvador Sells Out

I think that my favorite sculpture of the lot was this one. I think it is really neat to see the perfectly shaped an normal golden lady on the left, and her oddly shaped Dali version on the right. It was actually really super neat. There was also a sculpture with a normal lady who had a giraffe neck, but it was almost disturbing, so I saved the last spots on my memory card for the golden girl. Here are some great Salvador stories though:

Towards the end of his life, at his peek of fame, he would take his students and friends out to fancy restaraunts and they would order everything they could ever want. When the waiter came round for with the bill, Salvador would write out the check, and then draw a picture on the back while the waiter was watching. He was in essence writing his own money since the owner would never dream of losing an original Salvador Dali by way of cashing the check. What a genius!

In 1969 Salvador Dali was commisioned to make an original logo for the Chupa Chups lollipop company. I wonder if the advertising team expected something a little more "Salvadoresque" than just the name spelt in a fancy way inside an eight leaf clover. Suckers.

The persistance of parsley

My exposure to Mr. Dali was by no means in a museum. Salvador's got his own museum out here, but it is hidden away in the Naughty District by the Moulin Rouge, and I'm not really in a hurry to get out there again. Instead, I went to a small exhibition of some of his original sculptures displayed in a top notch (Niles Crane style) shopping area on the Champs Élysées. Dali is certainly most famous for his painting The Persisance of Memory, which is displayed at the New York Museum of Modern Art and on my blog. Its pretty much the oddest painting you'll ever see, and if you ever want a good laugh go on the internet and read people's screwy interpretations of it. Its amazing how smart people sometimes think they are. Guilty as charged. The whole "tortilla clocks" and "weirdo horse things" was a theme that he explored quite often throughout his life, and the sculpture I saw was pretty neat, I think. Mostly I was impressed at how expensive things were at the stores around the sculptures. I suppose I'm just used to shopping malls whose most lucrative center pieces are fake trees in the food court. At least you can eat a hamburger without mint leaves and parsley on it while enjoying the sort of shade that only false fauna can provide.

Salvador Dali, your local eccentric

This week's freatured artist for me to say way to much about is none other than Salvador Dali. His life and works are best summed up by the word "Loony", which is layman's terms for the more artistic word "avant-garde". He was Spanish, and spent most of his life (1904 - 1989) in Spain, visiting Paris quite frequently, mostly in order to keep contacts with his fellow Surealists. He was most noticed for his eccentric characteristics (for example, this is a photo, not a painting) which often times were so dramatic that people just assumed he was a great artist even though he may not have actually been such. Most sources sight him as one of the best ten artists of the twentieth century, probably because he was a leader, not a follower. As for me, I have a hard time seperating a guy with a really colorful imagination and the ability to express it from a guy with a gift for art. I guess I can just sum it up by saying that I wasn't really moved by any of his works like I was with Picasso's. Perhaps, I'm just too much of a novice, or too much of a realist, or too much of a math nerd. Who knows? One of the sculptures I saw was his version of the Venus de Milo, which is pretty much the same as the old one, just in bronze and her body is covered with closable drawers in odd places. Art!

French cars

Here's the view of the Arc de Triomph that I would have gotten during my walk a few weeks ago if my camera hadn't run out of batteries. It is a really neat building, another one of those things that you've just got to see someday before you die. Also notice that all the cars on the street here are of the non-SUV type. Might this be the Theory of Economics applied by high gas prices and low demand, or is it just that in a big car you would no longer be able to park on the sidewalk? You decide. At any rate, it makes for a lot better commute, in my opinion. But of course, I'm the one on foot here, so why should my opinion count? Aren't those trees cool on the sides there!

The Hotel Concorde LaFayette in Person

My walk into Paris last weekend was mostly inspired by my desire to snap a few photos of the Hotel Concorde LaFayette. Here she is in all her beauty. Like I said before, the Hotel is the second tallest habitable building in Paris, and it took me just a few minutes to get there. Its a funny thing to walk to tall buildings in Paris, becuase it is usually not until right before you get to them that they actually appear in view. Since there is rarely a building shorter than eight stories, every building blocks your view. The route to downtown required me to continue walking along the road beneath the Hotel, and before I knew it I was standing on the Axe Historique. I had no clue that I was so close to LaFayette when i walked the length of the Axe a few weeks ago. The picture below is the view of the Hotel from the Axe. Pretty crazy, eh? The large building between us is a huge stadium (I think). I'll have to look into that.

Long Live France! And the Venezuelans!!

Oh, I should definitely remind everyone that last night's football match was won by France, and it was mostly due to my incredible cheering from the heights of Rue de Levis. I was amazed at how entertaining Soccer really is, and I am certainly going to find a way to watch the France vs. Brazil game on Saturday. It will be great. Something tells me that there will be a lot more goals on the Brazil side though. Whatever. I still want France to win. The winning team will go on to the Final Four. Excuse the American there. Here's a picture of a monument in the middle of a tiny park in the middle of an unknown street in the North West end of the 17th district. The monument is dedicated to a bunch of soldiers in Venezuela who did something amazing. Unfortunately they did their amazing thing in French and I was way too impatient to try and decipher it. I thought it was a pretty nice statue though.

St (Your Name Here)'s Church

Hi Ho everyone, things at work have been a crazy sort of busy lately, and I find myself staying late at work now actually doing work! Can you believe it? Hopefully the business has gone on break for a while so I can post last weekend's pictures before the week is out. I haven't much of a reason to fear, since this week the pictures are few and far between. I felt like going on a bit of a walk on Saturday so I hoofed it from my apartment over to the Eiffel Tower, stopping at some notable spots en route. This here is a church just at the border of Levallois and the 17th district of Paris. If I'm not mistaken it is called St. Paul's. Even if I didn't have a clue, I could probably guess that and be right. The one way sign on the bottom right is a bonus because I love you. The spire on the church is pretty neat, and can be seen from my apartment window, but what I really like is the front door, as seen to the right. I wanted to go up close to the door and find out what the façade is made out of, but it was being heavily patroled by some French Boy Scouts and I was afraid they would make me help people cross the street, so I stayed well away. Isn't it cool though, that such a neat building is right there in my own (and about a thousand other peoples') backyard? Oh a French Boy Scout is a person in your neighborhood. In your neighborhood. In your neighborhood.

Some National Pride

For those of you who pulled out your calculators, the winners and the years don't add up because the World Cup was not held in 1942 or 1946 because of World War II. That's not any good. I figured I'd post the national football logos for France(left), Germany(Center) and Portugal(right). Ideally I want someone who has never won before to go all the way, and since I get so much of my World Cup info from work I guess I ought to include a few cheers from Portugal. Viva Portugal!! I must admit, I think it is really cool how much people love their football in Europe. Whenever there's a game on, on rare occasion that a goal is actually scored, you can hear the fans screaming and cheering all the way across the city. I like it a lot.

The World Cup

Sorry I didn't get anything posted yesterday, I caught me a bit of a sniffle, and I just wanted to go to bed and get rid of it. Unfortunately, the cold is still around, but I got to learn exactly what it feels like to try and stay coherent at work while doped up on Nyquil. Is that stuff supposed to last 18 hours? Anyhow, here's a picture of what's going on in Europe right now, and what I will be participating in tonight. France is playing against Spain in a round of the FIFA World Cup over in Germany. Whoever loses has to go home. I have begun to catch World Cup fever (I'll steer away from the Nyquil, don't worry) and am looking forward to going over to Bruno's place to watch the game tonight. For those of you who haven't a clue what the World Cup is, I'll do my best to explain it real quick. Its like a mixture of the Super Bowl and the Olympics, all played on a soccer field. Every four years the tournament is held and qualified countries (32 of nearly all the world's countries qualify) compete for the world title. The host country for the Cup is voted on by FIFA (Like the NFL of international soccer) with the only stipulation that the host country is located in a different continent each time, matches are played in cities up and down the country. This time its just over the border in Germany, and next time, in 2010 it will be held in South Africa. The games have been going on like this since 1930, with Brazil winning 5 times, Germany 3, Italy 3, Argentina and Uruguay twice, and England and France once. Who will it be this time? The USA got out quite a while ago, so there goes my hopes for nationalism. I guess I could always cheer for France. It would be really neat to see them win while I'm here. Unfortunately however, all those in the know say that Brazil is to win once again. We'll have to see what happens. I think it is cool to be out here during the World Cup, and then in July it will be the Tour de France! Vive la France!!

Le Cemetaire Montparnasse

And there you have it, one more weekend of pictures all done. Check out the Cemetary of Montparnasse, its pretty cool from so far above. Somewhere down there is the tomb of Alexandre Dumas, I might go see it, I might not. I was going to right after the Tower, but it was closed. I still haven't a clue what I will do this weekend, but I'm sure you'll read all about it right here next week. Until then, have a great weekend everyone!

Sacre Coeur and The Louvre

You may have to wait until I get home for me to show you all the buildings and places in the picture. I'll try to mention the more famous ones. Before you read my description though, you ought to inflate the picture and see how many you can recognize. Lets do the easy ones first. The big patch of green in the middle is the Jardin of Luxembourg, you can zoom in and see the little kids playing with their sailboats in the fountain. Going counter-clockwise you'll see the dome of the Pantheon, and then the patch of green almost at the horizon is the Pere Lachaise cemetary. Its actually significantly larger than the Jardin of Luxembourg, but a lot further away. Just about in the middle of the picture is the Cathedral of Notre Dame in an island of the Seine, and just barely below and to the right of the white tower on the opposite side of the Ile de la cite you can barely see the spire of Sainte Chapelle surrounded by the Palais of Justice. The Pompidou Centre is just behind the white tower, and its hard to miss Saint Sulpice to the left of the picture. The poor Cathedral has a broken spire, which I hope gets fixed before I leave so i can take a picture of it without the nasty scaffolding. The picture below didn't turn out so hot, but I have to post it because it is the connector between The Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame. Note that the camera is zoomed in pretty far. Isn't Sacre Coeur beautiful up on the hill out there? In the very far bottom left you can see part of the Musée d'Orsay, and directly across the Seine is the Jardin of Tuileries connecting the Place de La Concorde and The Louvre. The Louvre is hugantimungous and goes for quite a ways off to the left (East). The famous pyramid is between the two wings of the building. Unlike the Smithsonian which is a whole bunch of pretty big buildings, The Louvre is one GIANT building that was built with the intention of getting tourists lost inside for days on end. I promise I'll get a bette picture next time I get on top of Montparnasse.

Levallois and the Hotel Concorde LaFayette

This is home sweet home. I zoomed in as close as I could to Levallois-Perret, but still coudn't get close enough to see my apartment, not by a long shot. This picture is certainly worth enlarging. The golden dome there is Napolean's tomb, and directly in the center you can see the Arc de Triomph. The tower in the middle left is Paris' fourth tallest structure, the Hotel Concorde LaFayette. If you were to exclude buildings that are not "habitable", Montparnasse would be the tallest in the city, with LaFayette a far away second, as it is only 137 meters tall compared to Montparnasse at 210 and the Eiffel Tower at 300 meters. The coolest thing about the Hotel Concorde LaFayette is that you can see it from my apartment window. Just to get an idea of the map, notice the lines of trees going through town, those are the Seine. The river winds around the city of Paris. I live almost exactly between the LaFayette and the northern branch of the Seine. Pretty cool, eh? I figured I'd be the only tourist atop the building that was actually taking a picture of the building rather than the view. It puts everything into perspective when you get back to the ground and think that you've actually stood on the roof of such a tall building.

The Eiffel Tower from the other Tower

The first thing that you look for once atop Montparnasse is the Eiffel Tower. From way up here you get to really understand how huge the Eiffel Tower really is. Isn't this a cool picture? The tip of the spire on the Eiffel Tower is 114 meters taller than where I am standing. Which means that the tallest habitable building in France, Montparnasse, is only 65% the height of the Eiffel Tower. You'll notice the field of grass between the two towers, the Champ de Mars, is very similar to the mall in Washington DC. Also note the exactly straight line from Montparnasse to Eiffel to The Grande Arche waaaaaay out there in the distance and across the Seine. Hats off to the builders of Paris! The line of trees running from left to right is of course the Seine, and all the tall buildings are at La Défense. The other picture is straight down from the 56th floor. Look how tiny everyone is, and how uniquely Parisian the streets and houses are. I figured the shadow in this pictures was pretty cool, too. Those buildings along the road look so tall when you are next to them, but it gets all "Mr. Rodgers" from 210 meters above.

The Tour Montparnasse

After another long walk across Paris I made it to the Tour Montparnasse. The tower itself was named after the neighborhood it stands in, which was named after Mount Parnassus, the home of the nine Greek muses. As the name suggests, the neighborhood is quite artsy, and was a famous hang out of Victor Hugo, Pablo Picasso, and Ernest Hemmingway. My goal was to get to the top of this 210 meter building and take some killer photos of Paris. After a bit of waiting, some Spanish translation for a bus load of confused tourists, and a lot of trying to figure out where the tourist doors were, I made it to the elevator. Since this is the tallest building I've ever been to the top of, I was quite surprised to feel my ears pop as I made the 38 second ascent to floor number 56. Floors 0 through 55 are offices, floor 56 is the tourist observation deck, floor 57 is a restaraunt, floor 58 is strictly mechanical (elevators, window washers) and floor 59, is used to get to the roof. It was a really neat building, and worth the six €s (they gave me the group rate for being part of the Spanish tour bus, I didn't try to explain) to get to the top. They post how high you are as you climb the stairs from floor 56 to the roof.

The Palais de Justice

I figured that I should show a picture of the Palais de Justice, since I saw it while I was at Saint Chapelle. The island in the Seine called Ile de la Cité is home to Sainte Chapelle, the Palais de Justice the Cathedral of Notre Dame and a lot of very expensive souvenir shops. I crossed the west bridge to the island from the north, in hopes to visit the church, but walked right past it. All I saw was the building in the picture, surrounded by a neat golden fence and a bunch of police guards. It wasn't until I made my second trip up the street that I realized you have to enter a door next to the Palais and go through a bunch of metal detectors to get to Sainte Chapelle. After I looked at the church I actually walked up to the Palais, and got to leave out the fancy golden fence. I felt pretty special as I walked right through and the guards didn't care. Just as special as everyone else. This is where the Parisians have court, and is on the sight of King Saint Louis IX's palace. By the way, Saint Louis, USA is named for King Louis IX.

King Saint Louis IX and Sainte Chapelle

This is Sainte Chapelle, a church on the other side of the island from the Cathedral of Notre Dame. The Church itself is famous as being the fifth church that I've seen while in Paris, and the first one to charge admission. Because of the admission, I did not go inside. Apparently they have a really cool three-story-tall stained glass window in there which I'd really like to see. I'll get back in July. Sainte Chapelle has been literally surrounded by the walls and halls of the modern Parisian Palais de Justice so its a bit tough to see, and only the astute tourist even knows that it is there. King Louis the IX had the chapel built in 1246 as a house for some holy relics he had recently bought for 135,000 livres, including the original crown of thorns, and a chunk of wood from Christ's cross. The total cost of the building was 40,000 livres, so those were clearly some pricy dead plants. Any other French monarch would have just gone in and stolen the stuff, but Louis was too nice, I guess. He was also famous for being the leader of a couple failed crusades to Jerusalem and Egypt, kicking every Jew out of France, and donating a lot of money to the poor. He died of dysentary in 1270 during his second crusade in Tunisia. Some of his guts were buried in Tunisia, some more were sealed in an urn and still remain in Sicily, and the rest of him was entombed in the Basilica of Saint Denis. Unfortunately, in the 1560s his body was taken during the French War of Religions and allegedly only one finger still remains there. Had I known that, I would have taken a picture! Such noble deeds as spending someone else's money, exiling Jews, having very mobile entrails, and ordering wars was certainly merit for Sainthood, which he received in 1297 and stands as the only French saint-king. By the way, there is a picture of King Saint Louis IX hanging in the chamber of the US House of Representatives. The relics of Sainte Chapelle were all taken during the Revolution, during which the church was used as an office, filing cabinets lining the stained glass windows.

Pablo's sculptures

Pablo paintings are really neat, but I'm just not good at taking pictures of them. Plus, I had no idea that his sculptures were so cool, too. Cubism seems to make more sense to me when it is 3-dimensional. Like this goat for example. He used plaster, cardboard some old dishes, and a big wicker basket to put him all together. Seperate entities that to him best represented certain parts of a goat's body. And check out this girl jumping rope. He used a lot of the same materials as he did for the goat (you can see the basket), but also a bunch of string, and some real shoes. Her arms are much smaller than they ought to be, and the rope is just huge, while the hair is one big block of cardboard. What's the first thing you observe when seeing a little girl jumping rope? Her hair bobbing up and down, how much bigger the rope is than she is, and those little shoes moving in perfect rhythm. All seperate parts represtenting the whole better when not organized as they normally appear. Of course, the cool thing about art is that everything is subject to its own interpretation. You gotta come to Paris and find what you think all this means. "I don't get it", just isn't a viable excuse. I'm still wondering why he chose to put the string where he did on the jumproper. Any thoughts?

All about Cubism

The Musée Picasso features a lot of his sculptures as well, most of them very reminiscent of his paintings. Picasso is famous for his founding of Cubism. This head statue is a perfect example of Cubism. He would analyze every individual shape of the model; the nose, the eye, the mouth, and then paint them individually according to his interpretation. The actual placement of the part on the final work had nothing to do with "reality", rather his interpretation of where the part would look best. The first movement of Cubism was characterized by using simple geometric shapes (like cubes) to represent the seperate parts, rather than convey the detail of the part. Its pretty cool stuff. Check out the mom walking her baby in the stroller. This is another great example of Cubism. Notice that the stroller is an exact likeness of a stroller while the mother and baby are all weird-looking. Its hard to tell in the picture, but the babies legs and arms are long and snake like and look all rubbery while the mom is straight as a board and stable. Isn't this just how moms and babies move while on a walk? Also, Mom's hands are seperated from her wrists, one is 2-dimensional on her forearm while the other is like a big lump on the stroller handle, meanwhile, her feet are in odd shapes and positions, like she's walking, and using her hands to take care of the baby at the same time. It's really neat stuff. I really really really like Picasso.

Pablo's Lady Problems

A friend of Picasso proudly showed him a painting of his he had just bought. Picasso dismissed it: "It's a fake." "What do you mean, it's a fake? I watched you paint it!" "Sometimes I paint fakes," Picasso shrugged.

This is a fairly famous Picasso painting found in the museum. It is a likeness of one of Picasso's favorite little mistresses 17-year-old Marie Thérèse Walker with whom the 37-year-old Picasso had an affair beginning in 1927. It is clear to tell from his good looks that Picasso was quite the lady's man. He was married four times, allegedly having a number of affairs while married to his first three wives. Friends say that Pablo refused to work in the presence of others, but hated to be alone while not at work, perhaps leading to his many female acquaintances. He was always painting pictures of his girls, and the museum here in Paris has a whole room dedicated to Marie Thérèse. Pablo married Olga Khokhlova in 1918, and ended up seperating from her a few years after he started his affair with Marie. They never got divorced because French law required a 50-50 separation of wealth at divorcement, and Picasso refused to give up his stuff and money. Finally Olga died in 1955 and Pablo was free to marry Marie. However, he never did, breaking Marie's heart. She hanged herself due to this after Pablo died. Another happy story coming your way from my blog. This is just one of the many stories of Pablo's wives, mistresses and children most of whom he ended up driving away, but he always got remarried just in time, or took legal cautions so that he could keep all of his money and works. It has been said that most of the paintings he did in his old age were a cry out for his old days of youth and women.

The Crucifixion, according to Pablo Picasso

A man once criticized Picasso for creating unrealistic art. Picasso asked him: "Can you show me some realistic art?" The man showed him a photograph of his wife. Picasso observed: "So your wife is two inches tall, two-dimensional, with no arms and no legs, and no color but only shades of grey."

I really doubt anyone but Picasso truly understood his works, but I am sure that it is possible that the onlooker can at least feel something akin to the feeling that Picasso was trying to convey. I doubt though that the feeling can be equal to what he felt. I've spent a lot of time at museums this year, and I've seen a lot of famous works of art, and I have certainly felt something different while looking at many of them; but nothing like how I felt when I looked at the original "Crucifixion" by Pablo Picasso. At first look you might even think it is sacreligious and just wrong, but after you really examine it you begin to feel what it may have been like to be there. The images are hard to differentiate but you can definitely see a little roman soldier on a horse, people casting lots, mourners, and then there's Christ...his face is all but correct, but doesn't show what is meant to be felt somehow. This is like trying to explain the color blue. Its a story that we know well, and that we are all passionate about, but maybe it takes a bit of "unrealistic" art to get the feeling of it just right. Picasso was truly a genius.

This week's museum

Alright, you knew this was coming, so lets get right down to it. I went and saw an amazing museum this weekend. Surely the next like five blogs will be all about it, so put on your art history caps. This week's featured artist is the one and only Pablo Picasso. "But Kason", you say, "Pablo was born in Màlaga, Spain, not Paris France." Yes, I know, but we must follow Parisian custom and take all the credit for the complete works of every artistic genius to have ties to the country (Leonardo Da Vinci, Ernest Hemmingway, every pope etc.). The truth is, Pablo moved to Paris in the early 1900s and lived the remainder of his life in France (he died in 1973), so I guess the French ought have claim to his works. There certainly are a lot to claim, since he produced 13,500 paintings, 100,000 prints and engravings, 34,000 book illustrations and 300 sculptures, making him the Guinness record holder of most prolific painter ever. Pretty cool, huh? The Musée Picasso is located in a beautiful ex-hotel hidden away on a tiny street sort of by the Pompidou Centre, and has got to be the most comfortable and inviting museum I've been in. This might be because there was nearly no one there. I loved it here, and I believe that after a few hours I had begun to understand the paintings. A little bit anyway. The Museum has more than 3000 of his works.

L'Escargot Montorguel

Hey there everybody. Sorry I didn't get to the blog yesterday, all sorts of other things ended up happening instead. I'm sure that everyone has been biting their fingernails waiting to find out what I did over the weekend. Just when I think I've seen everything in Paris I find out about all the things I've forgotten, I set out to see them and before I know it the weekend is over. As such was this weekend. I'll start by posting pictures of my walk down Rue Montorguel who's claim to fame has got to be L'Escargot Montorguel. This restaraunt is easy to miss in the hubub of this busy street (pictured down below), and I guarantee you that after seeing the prices you'll wish you had missed it. Of course, those who want to experience the true Parisian dining experience aren't looking for a cheap evening, so this alley would be right up their alley. Here in Paris most buildings have a shop or restraunt in the bottom floor (floor 0) and then about four or five floors of apartments above. This means that it is most likely that the window behind the golden snail is someone's room. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the instructions to get to your flat included, "just behind the golden snail"? This is a great part of town, right next to Les Halles, one of the largest subway stations in the world.

Lounging about on a Sunday afternoon

Alright, its eight o'clock p.m. on Friday, and I am finally posting the last of last weekend's pictures. I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do tomorrow, but I'm sure it will be pretty exciting and will likely involve a museum, a park, or a church. I miht just go to a monument to spice things up. The weather looks good, so the sky's the limit. Perhaps I will post the eight euros and go atop the Tour Montparnasse and get some sweet views of the city. Hmmm. Here is a final picture of the park around the observatory. I think it is cool that there are so many people in the park just lounging on whatever square meter of grass was open. You'll notice the plaque to the right. It is in commemoration of a soldier, Durand Pierre, who was killed by a German bomb at that spot on August the 26th, 1944. You'll see such things every so often in the most obscure spots around the city. It makes you realize how many interesting phases of history such an old town has been through. I like Paris a lot. I wonder what I'll do this weekend, besides polish my shoes. Til then, have a great weekend.

The Paris Observatory Park

Every so often I take a picture that I deem as worthy to be used as my desktop wallpaper. Since my office is pretty much the break room all the people like to try to guess where I took the picture on my computer while they eat lunch. Of course they do all their guessing in French, so for all I know they are talking about how tasty the raw meat on their salad tastes. The picture up yonder currently resides on my computer. I think I really like it because of the bird out in the middle of the river, and all the neat trees. This was taken in the big ol' huge park around the Paris observatory, as was the picture of the angel looking statue on top of that pole to the right. This is not the Seine, rather, its just some river that flows around down on that side of the town, who's name I ought to look up. Its always nice to just go to these parks and see what's going on, but I just sort of get sad because a man is supposed to be at a park on a Sunday afternoon with his wife, not by himself. I also get really sad because I'm way thirsty and sweaty and I just want to sit down on the grass for a while, but like an idiot I wore white pants because it was too warm for jeans. Yep, this is the difficult sort of thing I have to face each weekend. I assume that when Sara comes out I'll be happier as I'm holding her hand, and she will tell me to wear shorts instead of trying to masquerade as a non-tourist. I miss her a lot. But at least I've got that bird out in the water over there, and those neat trees.

The Parisian Meridian

Those of you who have yet to read the Da Vinci Code, shame on you. Shame! This monument is somewhat related to the book, especially the last couple of pages. As I've mentioned before, once thought was taken to standardize the longitude lines, the Parisians were quick to claim the center of Paris as 0°s longitude. It wasn't until 1884 when America's most famous president, Chester A. Arthur, called the International Meridian Conference, where 25 countries including France got together and decided that the line should go through the observatory in Greenwich, England, rather than the observatory in Paris, France. This really cheesed off the French who kept on using their own Prime Meridian until 1911. Anyway, this picture was taken at the Paris Observatory. The monument marks the original Prime Meridian. Allegedly there are a bunch of Prime Meridian tile markers making a straight line from this monument throught the Louvre and up to the Basilica of the Sacre Coeur. I looked for hours through the huge park around the observatory and found nothing. I'll find one someday I'm sure of it. It is my sacred quest. It was hot though, and I really just wanted to go home.

The Hotel de Ville of Saint Denis

This is the Hotel de Ville of Saint Denis, as taken from the front steps of the Basilica. Notice how it is quite similar to the Hotel de Ville of Paris, and the one of Levallois (which for some reason I've never taken a picture of). I think it is really neat that all the buildings in the metropolitan area are so detailed and pretty. One of the many things I love abour Paris is that everything comes to you better looking than we are used to in America. Rarely does your food come without being all covered in garnish, the buildings are detailed down to the centimeter, and all the people wear a lot of fancy jewelry and accessories all the time. Even the dogs have better haircuts than most of my friends. One can't go to many places around Paris without saying, "wow, that must have taken a lot of time to do". I like it.

Tales From the Crypt

I was so brave. I went down into the crypt all by myself, mostly because I was curious as to what it would be like. It is actually pretty scary. They have one section where you can look through the window and actually see a bunch of coffins all covered in dust sort of just lying there (left). What more is there to say about the crypt than that it is just like a cave with dead people in it. On the wall next to the tiny little stair case to get down there is a list of all the Kings of France in order from around 400 AD. It is really interesting to see how many there have been. There are little tiny rooms off the sides of the main room where the coffins of various Kings, mostly with simply their names etched on the sides, or on the floor. The main room has eight large rectangular rocks bearing the nearly illegible names of our Louis and their wives. As you might expect, my picture taking skills in the dark musty crypt were pretty lousy. Here are some pictures of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI's graves. Yes, I know it says Louis XVIII, but Louis XVI is the one above it. I find it a bit ironic that these people, and I'm not simply referring to Marie and Lou, who spent their entire lives enjoying the nicest of things and being upheld as God's gift to the peasant all end up being just a bunch of bones lying in the basement of a church that not many people even know about. I guess in the end everyone is nearly the exact same. It makes a big difference to know that it really isn't like that. Yes, man is dust, and mortal, but we are made up of unique spirits. In this world it is hard to see it like that. Imagine how amazing the resurrection will be when even in death, that individuality will be manifest one again in the flesh. But not only the flesh, a glorified and eternal body. That's a good deal. Hopefully God will let us all eat cake.

The embarassed dead nude dude

Holy cow, these posts are getting long, I better put a sock in it. But there's so much to say! I figured I would post this picture from the necropolis. I don't recall which French royal this is in the ornate tomb, but the statue of him lying inside the arches is pretty funny. It looks like he's trying to cover himself up. This is certainly the first nude statue I've seen in Paris that looks totally embarassed to not have his clothes on.

Monument to Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI

At first I thought these were the actual tombs of Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette, but I found I was quite mistaken when I found their graves in the crypt. I've been doing a lot of reading about these guys, and I've gotten to the point where I consider myself one of their biggest fans. Here's a recap of the story, I'll be way more brief than I ought. In an effort to improve relations between France and Austria, the King of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Francis I married his daughter Marie Antoine off to Louis XVII. She was 14 he was 16. They were immediately expected to have a child, but for some reason (people say Louis XVI was afraid to touch her) she didn't get pregnant until she was 21. Can you believe it? Anyhow, when Louis XVI was 20 his dad died, making him King and Marie Queen. As you know they lived at this lavish palace in Versailles, and Marie spent money like there was no tomorrow. She actually had a huge house built for her to escape the rigors of living at Versailles! Come on. Meanwhile, Louis XVI made the public irrate by sending a lot of money and soldiers to help the Americans in the revolution, and so the French decided, and rightly so, to have their own revolution. They stormed Versailles demanding the King to release the store of flour that was apparently (but not really) in the castle. Marie allegedly said, "let them eat cake", because it requires less flour to make cake than it does to make bread. To make a long story short, the mobs won out, put Marie, Louis, their son and daughter, and all the court in prison, eventually executing each one by guillotine. I don't know, there was reason to stop the vain monarchy, but no one should have to go through what Marie Antoinette did during her imprisonment. They would actually place the heads of her friends and family on spikes outside her cell window. Her poor son died of sickness at age eleven while in prison; NOT the same cell as his mother. Eventually she was paraded through the streets of Paris and guillotined in 1793 at the age of 38, although people say she looked as though she were 70. The story is much more detailed than that, but there's the longs and shorts. There was just a movie put out about Marie. Is there anyone about that might give me a critique?