I heart art

Walked my shoes off on my first full day in Paris. I started out at the Rodin Museum and ended up at the Arc de Triomphe. In between I saw the Hotel Invalides, Musee d'Orsay, Garden Tuilleries and avenue Champs-elysses. All in all a full 12 hours of walking was had.

The Rodin Museum has a wonderful garden full of sculptures, including The Thinker. I had a quiet walk through and did a little sketch of a statue in the middle of a pond. I totally forgot about my sketchbook! Crap. Oh well, I did get two sketches in.





After the museum, I ventured into Hotel Invalides as it is right across the street. It is not somewhere I was going to see, but I was there, so why not. I'm glad I did. The place is massive and has the tomb Napoleon is in. Boy did that dude have a bad case of short-mans syndrome. Everything he did was over-the-top. The tomb would fit at least 50 clowns.


I then ventured into the army museum there. I believe it's the biggest in the world (don't quote me on that). The French keep everything. They have thousands of pieces of armor from medieval times alone! And the amount of artillery, swords, crossbows canons and horse armor is impressive.


I would highly recommend seeing this place if you are in Paris. It is beautifully laid out and they have demonstration areas where you can put on the armor to see how it feels.


Another cool thing they have is full depictions of most of their war battles. They have these huge screens that animate a battle and you listen and watch as they show you on maps how the battle was won or lost. I listened to the Battle of Waterloo completely.

What a contradiction though. In London, they have so many monuments and are so proud of defeating Napoleon. And in Paris, they are so proud of Napoleon and his accomplishments. It's interesting to hear both sides. It makes me want to learn much more about this crazy little man.

Afterwards I walked over to the Musee d'Orsay. Ok, this is my favorite museum ever! The amount of impressionism and post-impressionism is, in a word, impressive. The one piece that absolutely "wowed" me was van Gogh's self portrait. I bet you can see it a mile away, it's so bright with colour. The aqua colours in the painting are so bright and contrast greatly with the orange of his hair and beard. It's almost cheerful until you look at his face, which is full of pain.


I saw so many other pieces that I loved, but I will not go on and bore you with my nerdiness.

But I'm still sticking with art, I am in Paris after all. After the Orsay, I sat by a fountain in Garden Tuilleries and there was a woman beside me painting in a small book. She had her shoes off and was resting her feet on the fountain edge. She held two little metal bottles of paint while she painted. I kept looking over at her work. It was beautiful. It looked like art deco from the 40's. I finally got up the nerve to ask her if she was willing to sell. Unfortunately, she couldn't. She is making a new design for a larger piece she is working on. Her name was Rusudan Petviashvili, she's an artist from Georgia. Too bad, I would have cherished it. Wasn't meant to be. But she gave me her card and a small pamphlet of her work.

Bonsoir.

Paris c'est magnifique!

Bonjour! And that's about the extent of French I know. I arrived this morning via the Eurostar. It took 2 hours and was quite a pleasant ride. The staff were extremely nice.

The Hotel Pont Royal is very nice too. The staff are extremely kind and the room is elegant and large. I'm on the sixth floor and when I open the window I have a view of the top of the Eiffel tower on the left and all of Sacre Couer on the right. Here are two pics from outside my window.






I did a short walk to the river and back as I had someone picking me up for a Louvre tour. I didn't get lost at all. Hmm, maybe I'm getting the hang of this. I have yet to see a car that doesn't have scratches or dents or worse! They drive like maniacs here.

Our tour guide was a good dude, he was originally from Holland. He said he came here for a trip and didn't go home. He showed us the big things, like Venus de Milo and Mona Lisa. Mona was stunning. It's too bad it's so busy in there. It would be nice to sit in front of it and appreciate its beauty. Hard to do when there is about 60 people in the room and they are all just taking pictures and talking. I didn't think that would ruin my experience of it, but it did. Ah well, I did get to see another Leonardo that was just as beautiful, The Virgin of the Rocks.

After the tour I walked through Napoleon's state rooms. Holy, they are ornate to the extreme. You know how American's say "go big or go home?" I believe the French originated that title. The ceilings and floors and walls are works of art, and that's not including what resides within them.


I also tasted the best quiche. I have no idea what it was, but it had mushrooms in it and was so good. I think I will just eat pastry here. ;)

There is no wireless access in my room at the hotel, it's just in the bar and lobby downstairs. I hope to upload as much as I can, but it might be few and far between.

Here are some photos from tonight. I went for a walk and there is this one pedestrian bridge that is all young people sitting around eating baguettes, drinking wine and smoking. Looked like everyone was having a great time. Also, the bridge has thousands of little locks attached. Don't know the history behind it, but it was pretty cool.

Bed Knobs & Broomsticks and mummies, huh?

Yesterday I took the London Underground for the first time. Hello, that system is simple! Everyone told me it is, but I had doubts because every time I saw the map, it was confusing. Well, it took me one short metro ride to figure it out. That's what colour coding does, it simplifies things.

Anyway, I went to Saturday's market on Portobello Road in the morning. Now a lot of people I know remember it from the movie "Notting Hill." As I am an old hag - my web teams nickname for me - I remember it from the movie "Bed Knobs & Broomsticks." If anyone remembers that movie they should remember the song about Portobello Road and all the great things you will find there.

What I found? A great way to spend a morning. It was fun talking to the shopkeepers, looking at their treasures and just absorbing a really vibrant atmosphere. I did buy one treasure, a nice tartan scarf made in Ireland. It was the one thing I saw that I definitely wanted. Must of been the Irish in me. When we aren't drinking, we are making great woolen things. I think?

After the market, I hopped on the metro and dashed down to The British Museum. I know I am excited about everything I am seeing, but I have been waiting for years to see this place. And it exceeded expectations! Everything I saw was fascinating, but I really wanted to see the Egyptian pieces. WOW. They have so much.

The first thing was the Rosetta Stone. The crowds around it are immense, but if you are patient, you will eventually get close. It literally took my breath away. I audibly gasped when I walked up to it. I never thought it would do that to me, but it did. It's so pristine and so old.

Everything in that exhibit is old. You start to feel really small when you walk by pieces that are dated 2500 B.C. Supposedly they have artifacts that date back to 10,000 B.C. Sweet jeebus!

Another piece that floored me was "Aztec turquoise double-headed serpent." It's not too large, but the colour in it is so vibrant. It's pretty kick-ass. It was the last item I was able to get a picture of before my camera battery died. ARGH, how can it die at that place? It's probably for the better. You start to get too picture happy and forget to really look at and absorb an object and think about how it makes you feel.

They also have a very nice library there too. It holds some great pieces. I got to look at a coin collection of each King and Queen. I really admire Queen Elizabeth I, so it was a treat to see her two coins. She was a pretty cool chick.

After the museum, I walked down Charring Cross Road and stumbled into the theatre district. It's hopping! People everywhere on the streets just talking and drinking. I wanted to go to a show, but I was exhausted and it was too late, so I just came back to the hotel.

London in pictures - Day 2 - The British Museum

The Rosetta Stone. This made me gasp when I first looked at it.


Just some dudes chillin.


Ramses II. Big boy statue.


Statues from the Parthenon.


Mummies!


And cat mummies too.


Oh, and why not mummify bulls as well.


Aztec double headed serpent. Simply gorgeous.


Aztec skull. Simply creepy, and still kinda pretty.

What street is this?

Cannot even count how many times that was said this evening!

After I got in a good nap this afternoon, I ventured out on a walk to familiarize myself with the neighbourhood. I'm staying in the borough of Chelsea. And boy can these streets be confusing! There are small little side streets everywhere and no street signs. At least, that's what I thought at first. But there are actually plenty of signs, they are attached to buildings. I had no idea. When I first saw them I was like "they sure like to name every building." Yep, I'm not swift right off the bat.

After I figured out the signs, I just started walking and ended up at the Victoria & Albert Museum. I love that the museums are free here. You just walk in and go, just leave a donation. What an interesting and eclectic museum. I saw renaissance and medieval art mixed with women's high fashion. I think the Juicy Couture sweatpants outfit made me chuckle the most. They had something for everyone. They even had a library solely devoted to art books. I couldn't go in :(

The web geek in me must mention, London uses the best fonts. Stylish and appropriate.

London in pictures - Day 1

Here are a few pictures from my first day in London.





Victoria & Albert museum - the courtyard. The sign said "no puddling." I'm assuming that means jumping in the water.











Wooden sculpture. Dude killed dragon and is now just chilling with it. The detail is incredible on this piece.





The beat down. I think this is what UFC was 500 years ago.





Teeny, tiny Hasidic Jewish crown. Would fit nicely in your hand.





Beatrix Potter watercolor. An entire hall was dedicated to "Peter Rabbit." Each page is framed and displayed in a line so you can read the book.





English paintings. Look at the huge one on the right. Someone really loved that dog!





Concert and theatre posters. Loved the Sex Pistols one.





Yep, that is a Juicy Couture outfit. So sophisticated.





Royal Albert Hall at night. Got a double decker bus in there too.






Albert Memorial at night. Queen Victoria really loved her Albert! The whole area seems to be named after him.

Put that in your pipe

This is the exterior of Centre Pompidou, the National Modern Art Museum in Paris.

What unique architecture. I imagine it was shocking to the locals when it first opened in 1977; but that’s what a modern art museum should be.

Did a little Googling and here’s what I found:

“The architects created huge uncluttered space inside by moving all the service sections outside. Their goal was to show the public how a building functions and color-coded the different areas – the air pipes are blue, the water pipes are green, the escalators are red, the electricity is yellow.”

Love that the building guts are on the outside and colour-coded. How cool is that?