Photos of Paris-Provence Part-6 of 8

[ Last : Photos of Paris-Provence, Part-5 of 8 ]

Photographs from Paris-Provence tour--2008-10

(Part-6: Paris, Louvre book store)

 

2008-10-08 Bus tour of Paris, book store

 

The whole group in front of the Opera Garnier.  The photo was digitized with the camera.  Scanner might do a better job.

 

 

To the city tour bus parked next to Louvre museum

 

From the window of my room I see this Le Louvre de Antiquaires daily.  But there was no time to visit.  There are so many museums in Paris.  I should spend one whole week here to explore them.

 

Bicycles for rent, a novel idea.  The whole city should have bicycle route first.

 

Opera Garnier about 1 Km from the hotel.

The Place Vendôme Column erected by Napoleon to commemorate the victory of Austerlitz in 1805.  The Place Vendome (Place = square) is famous for fashionable and deluxe hotels, Ritz, Park Hyatt, Bristol.  Polish composer Fredrick Chopin and Coco Chanel lived there.  We just passed by in the bus and could not see the details there.

 

The back side of Palais de Justice. The Palais also contains the ancient structure of the Conciergerie, a former prison, now a museum, where Marie Antoinette was imprisoned before being guillotined.

 

Notre Dame Cathedral, the seat for the Archibishop of Paris.  The building is considered one of the first and the finest Gothic architecture.  Building started 1163 and completed 1345.  The , novel "The hunchback of Notre Dame", is a story set in 1482, written by Victor Hugo in 1931, and the movie played by Charles Laughton was shot in 1938.  Notre Dame = Our Lady.

 

Pantheon (= all the gods), built in 1789, was originally a church, later turned into burial site for great people acknowledged by parliamentary act for "National Heroes".  They include writer and philosopher Voltaire (1694-1778), Rousseau (1712-1778), Hugo (1802-1885), Zola (1840-1902), Nobel laureate in physics and chemistry Marie Curie (1867-1934), inventor of braille for the blind Louis Braille (1809-1852), Alexander Dumas (1802-1870, "The three musketeers"), French resistance member during WWII Jean Moulin (1899-1943), French Socialist leader Jean Jaures (1859-1914), etc. 

 

Pantheon was built by Jackque-Germaine Soufflot.  He was also buried there.

 

Musee d'Orsay was a train station turned museum.  It holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1915, including photography, and is probably best known for its collection of impressionist masterpieces by such painters, Monet, Degas, Renoir, Cezanne, etc.

 

 

The Palais Bourbon is the seat of the French National Assembly, the lower legislative chamber of the French government.

Fountain near Place de la Concorde, the major square in Paris, where guillotine was set during the French revolution.

 

The Obelisque (Obelisk) at the center of the Place de la Concorde. A 3,300-year old monument that was given to France by the Viceroy of Egypt in 1829. 

 

Grand Palais near Place de la Concorde, built in 1900 for Paris Exhibition. It serves as a home to major art exhibits and cultural events, and contains a science museum and, in the basement, a police station.

 

Captivating sculpture!

 

Shops on Champs Elysees

 

Arc de Triomphe stands in the centre of the Place Charles de Gaulle, also known as the Place de l'Étoile. It  honors those who fought for France, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars.

 

Louis Vuitton flagship store in Paris Champs-Elysees.

 

Gustave Eiffel built the Tower for the Universal Exhibition, completed in 1889.  I got more info as below:  

300 steel workers, and 2 years (1887-1889) to construct it. 15,000 iron pieces (excluding rivets). 2.5 million rivets. 40 tons of paint. 1671 steps to the top. Maximum sway at top caused by wind: 12 cm (4.75 inches). Maximum sway at top caused by metal dilation: 18 cm (7 inches). Total height in 1889: 300.51 meters (985 feet, 11 inches).

Total height with television antenna: 320.755 meters (1052 feet, 4 inches). Height varies up to 15 cm depending on temperature. Size of base area: 10,281.96 square meters (2.54 acres). Total weight: 8.56 million kg (9441 tons). Total number of visitors during 2007: 6,822,000.

 

Les Invalides. Napoleon and other military leaders acknowledged as National Heroes by parliamentary act are buried here.  The more I learn about Paris, the more I realize the contribution of Napoleon Bonapart to the city and the France. 

 

Military Academy where Napoleon attended in 1784 at age 15.

 

Bridge on River Seine.  Do not know the name of it, but the golden sculpture at the end of the bridge is magnificent.

 

Grand Palais

Arc de Triomphe du carousel in the Louvre Palace.

Louvre was the actual seat of power in France until Louis XIV moved to Versailles in 1682.

 

Glass Pyramid of I. M. Pei in Louvre, inaugurated in 1988. The inverted pyramid was inaugurated in 1993.

 

What an experience for me to be standing inside Louvre Palace!

 

Underground lobby inside the Pyramid

 

The book store

 

View from inside the Pyramid.

 

After days of French food, we had to have sushi at Japanese restaurants near Hotel Louvre!

 

Statue of Joan of Arc (Jeanne d'Arc, 1412-1431).  It was indeed incredible that this peasant girl of 17 lead the French army to several important victories in the Hundred Years' War with "divine quidance", and was indirectly responsible for the coronation of King VII.  Burnt at stake at age 19, canonized in 1920 at Notre Dame Cathedral.

 

Photo of River Seine from Pons du Carousel.  The average depth in Paris is about 8 meters.  The flood alert of the river in 2003 resulted in relocation of 100,000 works of art out of Paris.  Much of the art in Paris is kept in the underground storage rooms and could be flooded.

 

 

(  continued to :  Photos of Paris-Provence, Part-7 of 8  )