Our time is running out in Paris, so it was time to hit some of the biggies.
After the tower we headed to the Champs Élysées and the Arc de Triomphe.
We also found the missing obelisk from Luxor, Egypt.
-David
Tower and Arc
Posted with BlogsyMore Paris
Today I went to the Louvre. Yanmei has “been there”, so she decided to stay home and rest. I couldn't cover the whole place in one day. Hopefully I can come back again some day and spend more time there.
I don't get the fetish of photo taking in a place like the Louvre. People are looking at the art through the tiny screen of their phone/camera, snapping a shot and moving on. Don't they realize there are professionally taken photos available online, and the whole point of coming to the museum is to see the works in person instead of on a screen?
While the rooms with the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo were packed, the room with my favorite and, in my opinion, the most important item was almost deserted. I'm talking about the Code of Hammurabi. I confess I even took a couple of photos of it. It is not as visually striking as a Michaelangelo sculpture, for example, but its great age and historical significance make it the coolest object to me.
If you aren't familiar with it the Code of Hammurabi is a list of 282 laws from about 1750 BC that covers many everyday situations, such as merchants giving receipts for transactions. It is also the origin of “an eye for an eye”, although it goes on to elaborate lesser punishments for destroying the eye of a freeman (poor person), or a slave. Also it is the first instance of the presumption of innocence. In fact it is quite harsh stating that if you accuse someone of a crime for which the punishment is death and fail to prove the accusation, then you will be put to death.
I bought a book a few years ago with the translations of all the laws, it is pretty interesting reading. Lots of laws dealing with robbery and marriage. There is the concept of liability, for example if you accidentally injure someone you have to “pay the physicians.” I wouldn't want to be a physician though, because if a physician operates on a man and causes his death then his hands are to be cut off. I imagine a lot of operations in 1750 BC would result in death.
As I mentioned, we are staying in the Montmartre region of Paris, which is near the Sacré Coeur basilica, so we finally walked over there this evening.
As a bonus we got to see the full moon rise over Paris.
And the Eiffel Tower from a distance.
-David
Chateau de Versailles
One of the things Yanmei did want to do in Paris was go see Chateau de Versailles, since she missed it before. I was a bit leery of it after reading a lot of reviews that said it was overcrowded with long lines, two things I hate. All the advice said buy tickets online and go early. I bought the tickets and the hotel concierge recommended we leave by 7:30am at the latest, since it takes a little over an hour to get there by train. It opens at 9am, so if you are there before 9 you only have to line up with the other people who bought tickets online. If you arrive after 9, the entrance line grows dramatically as the people who lined up for tickets get their tickets and join the entrance line.
I won't go into details but we left a little after 11:15am. 🙁 The line was massive.
Yanmei said she'd wait in line while I went to the gardens. The gardens were impressive in size, but mostly just shrubs and fountains that were not working, which was disappointing since Tuesday is supposed to be the fountain show day.
Finally she called me to say she was getting close to the front. Not bad, less than 2 hours. It was very nice of her to wait while I looked around the gardens.
Inside we decided not to get the audio guide. Not sure if that was a wise decision or not. As it was I found it pretty dull, I'm not sure if the audio guide would have helped.
The Hall of Mirrors is probably the most famous part of Versailles, but my favorite part was the Gallery of Battles, which has huge paintings depicting the famous battles in French history from Charlamagne to Napoleon.
Several months ago Yanmei sent me a text: “Suddenly I found out you look like Napoleon”. Followed by this image. I think I laughed out loud at my desk. I actually see some resemblance. 🙂
We left the palace itself and went into the gardens. Finally they turned on some of the fountains!
Most of the gardens are open to the public free. We saw some people jogging around the canal. That must be nice. If you live close by you can just do an afternoon jog through the gardens of Versailles.
Overall I wasn't very impressed and neither was Yanmei. Maybe it was the crowds or maybe I've become jaded to palaces. The first palace I saw was the Tsar's Winter Palace in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) and I feel like that was much more impressive than Versailles. Still we had some good times today after a rough start.
-David