Sunday, February 27, 2011

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!!




Saturday, February 26, 2011

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.