Petit Palais

The Petit Palais is a wonderful building turned museum with art from a couple of different movements.

I absolutely love the ceilings

The first part of the "tour" is pottery, which i find fascinating... especially these two vases.

My main purpose of visiting the museum was to see the temporary exhibit by the Boulats, a father-daughter pair of french photojournalists. I took limited pictures of this expo because i just wanted to soak it all in...

Awesome stair case!!

This was part of the Paris history section... which just included different paintings of paris (mostly during the 1889 world expo) but i thought this elephant was cute

Awesome painting by Monet (i think). I have definitively decided that my favorite time period is impressionism, it's just so relaxing and wonderful and for the most part very bright!

wonderful little garden in the center of the building.

Picture of the interior of famous painting and sculpture with all most matching poses.

The back part of the building facing the courtyard

Phantom of the Opera Opera

Visited the Palais Garnier or Opera National this past week. This is the Opera house which the opera "Phantom of the Opera" by Andrew Lloyd Weber is based off of, which was based off of a French novel.

It was an awesome place to visit!! It was designed by Louis Charles Garnier, who wrote his name on the ceiling. It is in the rococo style.

the main staircase is pretty impressive!!

Conciergerie -- Last Prison of Marie Antoinette

I visited the Conciergerie this past monday which is a really neat historical building on the main island next to the Palais du Justice. It held a ton of prisoners during the Revolution and Terror, most notably Marie Antoinette and Robespierre.

 Awesome vaulted ceilings

 Cool jar used by Marie Antoinette on the day of her death

very creepy replica of Marie Antoinettes prison cell... i hate those weird dummys they put in museums!!

The Louvre Part 1 -- Denon Wing

Two Saturdays ago (the 19th) me and my roommate went to the Louvre for some roommate bonding time. Another friend came with but had already seen most of the section we went through so we just met up with her at random points throughout the wing. 

 The coralish looking statue is part of a temporary exhibit (that i didnt see but there are signs for it all over the metros)

 This is "La Vierge et l'enfant tronant" from the beginning of the XIV century.

 Sainte Marie Madeleine by Gregor Erhart from 1515-1520

 La nymphe au scorpion by Lorenzo Boutolini from 1845

 L'amour et Psyche

 Isis by Grand Jacquet in 1779-1781

 Sarcophage des Epous 520-510 BC

 Winged Victory

 Crown on the left is Charlemagne's and on the right is Louis XII and his sword

 Les mysteres de la Passion du Christ by Campi in 1569

 Le Pandemonium by John Martin 1823

A cemetery.... how romantic (Feb 14)?

Today (Valentines Day - which i realize is not the day of this post but like 2 weeks later) me and two friends went to the Pere Lachaise Cemetery... where many notable ppl are buried...

 Above, the wall of Martyrs, mostly commemorating those who died in the Holocaust or Shoah in French.

 Tomb of George Seurat... dot dot dot george seurat...famous pointilism painter, whose paintings i saw in the musee d'orsay

 Heloise and Abelard, reunited in death... famous french lovers of the middle ages.

 The grave of Jim Morrison. Many people visiting this grave, many just standing/sitting and staring at it. There is a fence surronding it however because people used to do drugs on his grave, not that the current fence would stop that (as an irish couple told us... just hop over the fence, it's a much better picture)(but i didnt hop over the fence.. zoom works just as well without disrespecting about 5 other people)

 oscar wilde's grave, also a site of pilgrimage for some people. I knew it was covered in lipstick but not this covered.

A friend of mine added a kiss to the back of the tomb.

Cours la Reine - February 16

On a beautiful Wednesday afternoon this past week I took a walk along the Seine on the cours de la Reine. Which goes from just about the Palais' to the Pont d'Alma. It was a very pretty walk, possibly created by Marie de Medicis in the 1600s. 

Thought that this was a neat view of the Eiffel Tower through a tree at dusk.

 Below is a statue of General Lafayette, who helped the US win the Revolution. It was donated by the American Daughters of the Revolution.

Below is a memorial to martyrs during the Armenian Revolution (? i think?)

More photos of the Seine, the Eiffel Tower, and the sky

The Eiffel Tower and the Flame of Liberty, which marks the tunnel where Princess Diana died. Used to have written graffitti memorial on it but the city washed it all off in 2002.

Rouen Part Two - The Churches

Rouen is known to be the city of a thousand steeples. We however only visited 4 of those churches. Mostly because a majority of the churches were destroyed in WWII. The first church we stumbled upon was the Abbey of St. Ouen.

unfortunately we couldn't go inside because it was closed for lunch. So we moved on to: the St. Maclou Church

which we fortunately could go inside. And it was awesome. I love the stained glass, slightly untraditional but cool.

Really like this stained glass:

Next church was the Cathedral of Rouen. Where Joan of Arc was questioned.

This is where Richard the Lionhearted of England's heart used to be buried but the English took it back.

We took about an hour long tour (and that was only part of it) in very rapid french by the man on the left. It was very interesting (what I could understand)! He took us places most people don't get to go: the baptismal chamber, this nave of the Bishops, the Roman foundations.

And lastly the very modern church of Joan of Arc. (see previous blog for more)