Arc de Triomphe

We left Versailles and headed back into Paris to the Arc de Triomphe. You can climb to the top of the Arc for a good view down the Champs-Elysees, but it was so foggy and crowded that we decided to save that for our next trip.

Versailles

And this is a lighted case of vacuum cleaners smack dab in the middle of the room. WHY????
Just in case you don't believe me....
These horrific pieces of "art" are scattered throughout the rooms of the palace. This is Michael Jackson and his chimp Bubbles.
The Palace is so large it's impossible to get more than a little bit in one photo!
Can you say excess? It really is amazing! This is the top of the canopy below, the chandelier, and the ceiling.
Now here's a canopy bed a girl could love (without the plastic!)
and a window right across from it.
Here is a close-up of one of the mirrors in the Hall of Mirrors...
I wonder whose grandma covered the furniture in plastic?
I don't know which is more handsome, the Hall of Mirrors, or my husband!
The ceiling in the hall of mirrors. I have never seen so much gold leaf in my life!
The famous Hall of Mirrors. On one side of the very long hallway are the mirrors (which you see in this picture) and on the other side are windows, which are the same size and shape as the mirrors (which you can see reflected in the mirrors).
and fireplace!
and bed...
A very understated clock...
This is actually the ceiling of one of the rooms!
There is no simple furniture in the Palace of Versailles!
There are two of these very large urns, vases, whatever one does with these in one of the rooms of the grand apartments.

Yesterday (12/31) we took the train to Versailles (about a 30 min. ride). We had been to Versailles once before, and I must say that it is much more beautiful in the summer. The gardens and the fountains really add to it's beauty, and, in the winter the fountains are frozen and the gardens sparse! Of course, the inside of Versailles was as beautiful and excessive as ever. It is so over the top it's no wonder the French revolted! Speaking of revolting... I read about an exhibit by the artist Jeff Koons at Versailles, but I thought that it was over. Unfortunately for us, it was still going on, and it really was offensive to us all (if the point of the exhibit was to illicit emotion from the viewer, it succeeded!). For any Jeff Koons fans out there, I apologize, but it is really an ugly thing to do to Versailles!

Musee Rodin

This is Rodin's original Thinker sculpture which came about 15 years before the large one in the garden.

This was an adorable class of French children who were drawing the sculpture. They would bring it up to the teacher and she would say no, and erase what they had drawn, and then send them back to try again!
Tim in front of "The Gates of Hell" (this will be his only time!).
Rodin's sculpture of Balzac
This is the dome of the Les Invalides church under which Napolean's tomb is, taken from the garden at Rodin's museum.

Le Penseur (The Thinker!) at the Rodin museum. This is exhibited in the garden at the Rodin museum, and the original in smaller size is inside the museum.
One more picture of Invalides!


This is a picture of Les Invalides (Army Museum), and a picture of the view of the Eiffel Tower from there. After leaving the Army Museum we walked to the Musee Rodin.

Musee de l'Armee (Army Museum and Napoleon's Tomb)

WWII K-rations for the Americans
The Army museum was interesting, but not many things were really picture worthy (at least not to me!). Besides, everything was in French, so I'm not sure what it all was!
Here is a model of the church with a cutaway where the tomb is located - imagine a hole in the circle in the middle where you look down upon the tomb.
The altar of the church at Invalides.
This is the inside view of the golden dome which is directly above Napolean's tomb (high above!).

My pictures are very dark, but this is Napolean's tomb in the Les Invalides church. His body was originally entombed elsewhere and moved here in 1840, and it was supposedly perfectly preserved 19 years after his death. Inside this tomb is an oak coffin, and inside that an ebony coffin, then two lead ones, a mahogany one, then a tinplate one... anyway, not hard to see why he was so well preserved on arrival! The tomb lays directly beneath the golden dome of the church.

Pantheon

The view from the steps of the Pantheon!

Entombed in the crypt below are some of the great French writers including, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Emile Zola and Voltaire. Marie Curie, and her husband Pierre are also here, along with many others!

This is Foucault's Pendulum which swings from a 220 ft. cable suspended from the dome above, and demonstrates the earth's rotation.



When Louis XV recovered from serious illness in the 1740's he decided to construct a church to honor Sainte Genevieve (the patron saint of Paris). During the Revolution the church was made into a pantheon, a place to entomb the good. Napoleon returned it to a church in the early 1800's, and it went back and forth a couple of times (from being a church to being a pantheon) until it was finally decided to make it a civic building for good (for the funeral of Victor Hugo).

Sorbonne

And Lindsay and Rachel in front of the ENORMOUS doors!
Here is the Chapelle de la Sorbonne (the chapel of the Sorbonne) from the Place de la Sorbonne.
Sorbonne, Universite de Paris was established in 1253! After we left the Musee National du Moyen Age we walked to the Sorbonne. Unfortunately, it is not open to visitors, but we walked around the area around it and stopped in a book store to buy a couple of books in French. Lindsay bought The Three Musketeers, Rachel bought a Harry Potter book, and I bought Madeleine!