The Arc de Triomphe
The Arc de Triomphe was commissioned by Napoleon in 1806. It was completed in 1836, under the reign of Louis-Phillipe. It's so big that, at the Paris victory parade in 1919 marking the end of World War I, one of the aviators flew a biplane through it.
Riverboat houses along the Seine
Notre Dame de Paris
Notre Dame was built between 1163 and the 1240s, replacing the 4th-century Saint-Étienne cathedral, which had been built on the same spot.
The Huguenot riots in the 16th century, the revolution in the 18th century, and WWII caused serious damage to the cathedral. It was restored first in the mid-1800s (a very controversial restoration--the people of Paris weren't too keen on cathedrals), and again in the 1990s.
Here are some details of the building:
This spire was added in the 1845 restoration.
Everything looks cooler in sepia tone, right?
Notre Dame was one of the first cathedrals to employ flying buttresses. Stone vaulted ceilings put a lot of lateral force on buildings, pushing the walls outward. The buttresses redirect the pressure downward, allowing cathedrals to have higher ceilings and larger windows.
The Panthéon
The Panthéon was built in the second half of the 18th century. King Louis XV contracted a grievous illness, and vowed that if he recovered, he would build a church to replace the shabby Abbey of St. Genevieve. However, the church wasn't completed until 1790, just in time for the revolution, when Paris was doing its best to expel religion from the country. The National Constituent Assembly rededicated it as a mausoleum. Mirabeau, the president of said Assembly, was the first person to be interred there in 1791.
Emily and Christmas trees!
Foucault's pendulum, which demonstrates the rotation of the earth. Double points to Emily for being able to hold a conversation in French about Foucault's pendulum with one of the curators. Now that is specialized vocabulary.
The tombs of Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, and Emile Zola.
Humorous graffiti
The Louvre
Nearly 35,000 objects in over 650,000 square feet. It's huge. The first part of the Louvre was built in the 12th century, and they've been adding on ever since.
Three of my (many) favorite pieces:
Winged Victory of Samothrace, c. 190 BCE
Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss, commissioned 1787.
Eros and Psyche is my favorite Roman/Greek folktale. Our earliest version of it comes from Lucius Apuleius in 2 CE. It's best described as a combination of Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella.
I've modified and shortened (yes, believe me, shortened) the Wikipedia synopsis of the tale below. If you aren't in the mood for a story, skip ahead to the next picture.
Envious and jealous of the beauty of a mortal girl named Psyche,
Aphrodite asks her son Eros to use his golden arrows while Psyche sleeps, so
that when she awakens, Aphrodite would place a vile creature for her to fall in
love with. Eros finally agrees to her commands after a long debate. As he
flies to Psyche's room at night, he becomes invisible so no one can see him fly
in through her window. As he slowly approaches, careful not to make a sound, he
readies one of his golden arrows. He leans over Psyche while she is asleep and
before he can pierce her shoulder with the tip of his arrow, she awakens,
startling him, for she looks right into his eyes, despite his invisibility.
This causes him to scratch himself
with his arrow and fall deeply in love with her. He cannot continue his mission
and flies back to Olympus. The news enrages Aphrodite. Venus places a curse on
Psyche that prevents her from meeting a suitable husband. Eros is greatly
upset, and decides that, as long as Psyche remains cursed, he will no longer
shoot arrows, which will cause the temple of Aphrodite to fall.
After months of no one — man or animal — falling in love, marrying,
or mating, the Earth starts to grow old, which causes concern to Aphrodite, for
nobody praises her for Eros's actions. Finally, she agrees to listen to Eros's
demands, allowing him his one desire, which is Psyche. Aphrodite, upset, agrees
to his demands only if he begins work immediately. He accepts the offer and
takes off, shooting his golden arrows as fast as he can, restoring everything
to the way it should be. People again fall in love and marry, animals far and
wide mate, and the Earth begins to look young once again.
When all continue to admire and praise Psyche's beauty, but none
desire her as a wife, Psyche's parents consult an oracle, which tells them to
abandon their daughter on the nearest mountain, for her beauty is so great that
she is not meant for mortal men. Terrified, they have no choice but to follow
the oracle's instructions. But then Zephyrus, the west wind, carries Psyche
away to a fair valley and a magnificent palace where invisible servants attend
her until nightfall, and in the darkness of night the promised bridegroom arrives
and the marriage is consummated. Eros visits her every night to sleep with her,
but demands that she never light any lamps, since he is afraid of her finding
out who he is.
Psyche, missing her family, begs her husband (whom she still has not
seen) to allow her to visit them. Eros allows Zephyrus to take Psyche back to
her sisters and bring all three down to the palace during the day, but warns
that Psyche should not listen to any argument that she should try to discover
his true form. The two jealous sisters tell Psyche, then pregnant with Eros's
child, that rumor is that she had married a great and terrible serpent who
would devour her and her unborn child when the time came for it to be fed. They
urge Psyche to conceal a knife and oil lamp in the bedchamber, to wait till her
husband is asleep, and then to light the lamp and slay him at once if it is as
they said. Psyche sadly follows their advice. In the light of the lamp Psyche
recognizes the handsome figure as the god Eros himself. However, she
accidentally pricks herself with one of his arrows, and is consumed with desire
for her husband. She starts to kiss him, but after a while, a drop of oil falls
from her lamp onto Eros's shoulder and wakes him. Wounded from the oil and
upset at her having lit the lamp, he flies away.
Psyche searches far and wide for her lover, finally calling on the
gods. Demeter appears, but refuses any help beyond advising Psyche that she
must call directly on Aphrodite, who caused all the problems in the first
place. Psyche next calls on Hera in her temple, but Hera gives her the same
advice. So Psyche finds a temple to Aphrodite and enters it. Aphrodite tells
Psyche that if she ever wants to see Eros again she must become Aphrodite’s
servant and complete every tasks she sets before her. First, she orders Psyche
to separate all the grains in a large basket of mixed kinds before nightfall.
An ant takes pity on Psyche, and with its ant companions, separates the grains
for her.
Aphrodite is outraged at her success and tells her to go to a field
where golden sheep graze and to retrieve some golden wool. A river-god tells
Psyche that the sheep are vicious and strong and will kill her, but if she
waits until noontime, the sheep will go to the shade on the other side of the
field and sleep; she can then pick the wool that sticks to the branches and
bark of the trees. Aphrodite next asks for water flowing from a cleft that is
impossible for a mortal to attain and is also guarded by great serpents. This
time an eagle performs the task for Psyche.
Aphrodite, furious at Psyche's survival, claims that the stress of
caring for her son, made depressed and ill as a result of Psyche's lack of
faith, has caused her to lose some of her beauty. She commands Psyche to go to the
Underworld and ask the queen of the Underworld, Persephone, to place a bit of
her beauty in a box that Aphrodite had given to Psyche. Psyche decides that the
quickest way to the Underworld is to throw herself off some high place and die,
and so she climbs to the top of a tower, but the tower itself speaks to Psyche.
It tells her the route that will allow her to enter the Underworld alive and
return again, as well as telling her how to get past Cerebus, the three-headed
dog guardian of the Underworld (give him a small cake); how to avoid other
dangers on the way there and back; and most importantly, to eat nothing in the Underworld,
as eating anything would trap her there forever. Psyche follows the orders
precisely.
However, once Psyche has left the Underworld, she decides to open
the box and take a little bit of the beauty for herself. Inside, she can see no
beauty; instead an infernal sleep arises from the box and overcomes her. Eros,
who has healed, forgiven Psyche, and finally found out from his mother where
she is, flies to her, wipes the sleep from her face, puts it back in the box,
and directs her to Aphrodite. Then Eros flies to Mount Olympus and begs Zeus to
aid them. Zeus calls a full and formal council of the gods and declares that it
is his will that Eros marry Psyche. Zeus then has Psyche fetched to Mount
Olympus, and gives her a drink made from ambrosia, granting her immortality.
Begrudgingly, Aphrodite and Psyche forgive each other.
Psyche
(“soul”) and Eros (“love”) have a daughter, Hedone, the goddess of
"pleasure" or "bliss".
Liberty Leading the People, 1830, commemorating the July Revolution (not the main French Revolution). The July Revolution is the event Les Miserables focuses on, and the boy next to Lady Liberty served as Victor Hugo's inspiration for Gavroche.
The next four photos show parts of Napoleon III's apartments inside the Louvre. Quite the spectacular pad.
The Luxor Obelisk in the Place de la Concorde, 75 feet tall
Musée Carnavalet, Emily's favorite museum.
Musée Carnavalet is a drop-dead gorgeous house with paintings of Paris in it. The peacock ballroom was under restoration, though. I'll just have to go back to Paris sometime so I can see it.
The Paris Opera House at night
Pont Neuf, "New Bridge," the oldest bridge in Paris. I love the irony.
A growing building. It's aliiiiive!
Me trying to get all artistic.
No explanation required.
And the best part of the whole trip:
Seeing Mom and Dad!
(And Kyle, too--he gets the next post.)
