5 days in Paris with a history maniac(TLDR, lots of photos)
10-13-2011
, 10:43 AM
Oh, bonjour mes amis.
I just got back from a vacation in Paris. Being a huge history fan, France of course holds many historical sites. I had a camera and took pictures of here and there. Lets roll...
The Louvre
First when you enter the louvre, there is magnificent garden in front of it called ''les tuileries garden'' The garden used to have a palace, but it was burned down in 1870. There's many statues in the park, made mainly during the 2nd empire(1851-1870, Napoleon III). Although most of them are greek mythology, two stuck out.
Instead of losing 1/3 of his army in the alps, Hannibal decided to go to the Louvre
Caesar and me. He came, he saw, he visited the Louvre
-------Inside the Louvre--------
The egyptian part of the museum is alright, with the famous Ramses II statue and the seated Scribe, although i find it somewhat dry due to my lack of Egyptology knowledge. You have to really know Egypt to enjoy the Egyptian section, as it's full of symbolism. If you are big for Egypt, im pretty sure nobody beats the English museums.
This picture makes me look like a fatass. Whatever. Love that grin on Amenhotep II(ruled Egypt circa 1427-1400 B.C)
The Greco-roman part of the museum was my favorite. Absolutely amazing sculpture and beautiful art. Stunning sculptures of clothing and drapery. The Louvre is worth it alone just for the greco-roman part. They have sculptures of many of the roman emperors, mostly Augustus and the epic beards of Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius. In the Greek department, many goddess's and mythological stuff, as well as the absolutely gorgeous Wings of Samothrace. Philosophers and orators are there as well, from Socrates to Cicero.
Athena god of justice, i shall sacrifice 4 cow's if you re-open Full tilt and get me my money. Also - when you gonna let me tap that?
Demosthenes, famous writer of the Philippics, a series of text warning the Greek city-states of the impending Phillip II/Alexander the Great invasion, but nobody listened to him. Sadly my dear Demosthenes, Modern Greece also has impending doom and we are still not listening.
The Middle Age stuff is not that exciting unless your a big fan of christian art. The Gothic stuff once in a while is pretty good looking - in particular the darker objects, as well as the baller gold-diamond stuff. Most of the artifacts are from the Frankish-Germanic kingdoms. I was quite stunned however, at the sculptures from the middles ages - they were quite good, although not like the greco-roman ones, are still very impressive. They are much more gloomy, very representative of the darker times of the middle ages.
Philippe Pot, a burgundy nobleman, gets an epic funerary monument. Also, i very nearly got kicked out of the Louvre because i grabbed a chair and stood up on it to take this picture.
Very baller chess set
The Renaissance and Enlightenment collection is gigantic and is the Louvre's main attraction. This in my opinion, is sadly the effect of the gigantic hype machine over the mona lisa. She is impressive to see in person - it is a good painting - but i think many of us have seen better. Also, the Italian renaissance stuff is so filed with either:
a) Jesus getting beat up
b) Angels and baby's flying over nun's
c) Apostles having a meal
There is so many of them and they are all so alike and not very well done(their technique is fairly poor especially when you see the later stuff). The 18th century stuff is better, although it is still quite dull due to the obsession of greek themes. Dicks and tits are on the menu when it comes to the greco-roman paintings. Anyway, enough ranting.
This picture is the best way to represent the mona lisa and renaissance section - a huge tourist magnet for average paintings. It's a good painting - but not the best IMHO.
We are gonna go back in time here and finish with the near east collection which is greatly underrated along with the Islamic collection(the Islamic section was closed when i went). Along with the photo's, you get to see the code of hammurabi and many of babylonian statues that are VERY impressive.
An absolutely amazing sculpture from the near east under Sargon II(722 – 705 BC)
A small fragment of Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar II, a king famous for being portrayed as ''behaving like a cow and eating grass'' in the bible. Yeah, im sure a king who re-built one of the most famous cities in the world acted that way... yes...
I could post more but i think that's what im gonna do for now. All i gotta say is that the Louvre is gigantic and if you go there - get there at 9:00 when it opens and you will have enough to go all the way to 5:30. If you are a history buff, then you will probably need to either plan specific routes or go for 2 days. Alright, im done for now, up next my trip report to the military museum.
I just got back from a vacation in Paris. Being a huge history fan, France of course holds many historical sites. I had a camera and took pictures of here and there. Lets roll...
The Louvre
First when you enter the louvre, there is magnificent garden in front of it called ''les tuileries garden'' The garden used to have a palace, but it was burned down in 1870. There's many statues in the park, made mainly during the 2nd empire(1851-1870, Napoleon III). Although most of them are greek mythology, two stuck out.
Instead of losing 1/3 of his army in the alps, Hannibal decided to go to the Louvre
Caesar and me. He came, he saw, he visited the Louvre
-------Inside the Louvre--------
The egyptian part of the museum is alright, with the famous Ramses II statue and the seated Scribe, although i find it somewhat dry due to my lack of Egyptology knowledge. You have to really know Egypt to enjoy the Egyptian section, as it's full of symbolism. If you are big for Egypt, im pretty sure nobody beats the English museums.
This picture makes me look like a fatass. Whatever. Love that grin on Amenhotep II(ruled Egypt circa 1427-1400 B.C)
The Greco-roman part of the museum was my favorite. Absolutely amazing sculpture and beautiful art. Stunning sculptures of clothing and drapery. The Louvre is worth it alone just for the greco-roman part. They have sculptures of many of the roman emperors, mostly Augustus and the epic beards of Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius. In the Greek department, many goddess's and mythological stuff, as well as the absolutely gorgeous Wings of Samothrace. Philosophers and orators are there as well, from Socrates to Cicero.
Athena god of justice, i shall sacrifice 4 cow's if you re-open Full tilt and get me my money. Also - when you gonna let me tap that?
Demosthenes, famous writer of the Philippics, a series of text warning the Greek city-states of the impending Phillip II/Alexander the Great invasion, but nobody listened to him. Sadly my dear Demosthenes, Modern Greece also has impending doom and we are still not listening.
The Middle Age stuff is not that exciting unless your a big fan of christian art. The Gothic stuff once in a while is pretty good looking - in particular the darker objects, as well as the baller gold-diamond stuff. Most of the artifacts are from the Frankish-Germanic kingdoms. I was quite stunned however, at the sculptures from the middles ages - they were quite good, although not like the greco-roman ones, are still very impressive. They are much more gloomy, very representative of the darker times of the middle ages.
Philippe Pot, a burgundy nobleman, gets an epic funerary monument. Also, i very nearly got kicked out of the Louvre because i grabbed a chair and stood up on it to take this picture.
Very baller chess set
The Renaissance and Enlightenment collection is gigantic and is the Louvre's main attraction. This in my opinion, is sadly the effect of the gigantic hype machine over the mona lisa. She is impressive to see in person - it is a good painting - but i think many of us have seen better. Also, the Italian renaissance stuff is so filed with either:
a) Jesus getting beat up
b) Angels and baby's flying over nun's
c) Apostles having a meal
There is so many of them and they are all so alike and not very well done(their technique is fairly poor especially when you see the later stuff). The 18th century stuff is better, although it is still quite dull due to the obsession of greek themes. Dicks and tits are on the menu when it comes to the greco-roman paintings. Anyway, enough ranting.
This picture is the best way to represent the mona lisa and renaissance section - a huge tourist magnet for average paintings. It's a good painting - but not the best IMHO.
We are gonna go back in time here and finish with the near east collection which is greatly underrated along with the Islamic collection(the Islamic section was closed when i went). Along with the photo's, you get to see the code of hammurabi and many of babylonian statues that are VERY impressive.
An absolutely amazing sculpture from the near east under Sargon II(722 – 705 BC)
A small fragment of Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar II, a king famous for being portrayed as ''behaving like a cow and eating grass'' in the bible. Yeah, im sure a king who re-built one of the most famous cities in the world acted that way... yes...
I could post more but i think that's what im gonna do for now. All i gotta say is that the Louvre is gigantic and if you go there - get there at 9:00 when it opens and you will have enough to go all the way to 5:30. If you are a history buff, then you will probably need to either plan specific routes or go for 2 days. Alright, im done for now, up next my trip report to the military museum.
10-13-2011
, 02:26 PM
Turn Prophet like this.
10-18-2011
, 10:38 AM
----- Les Invalides, France's main military museum -----
As a military buff and particularly the Napoleonic war, i was in my zone over there.
When you enter, there's a series of cannon on the outside from the XVI-XIX era. Nothing special, but i always liked Louis XIV cannon's because of what was engraved on them.
''ultimato ratio regum'' - meaning ''the kings last argument''
When you enter there's a vast array of Medieval armor and weapons as well as early matchlocks&flintlock. They have a nice summary and info on many of the objects - i especially love the clear comparison and contrast between the german and italian medieval armors. German going for a darker, gothic style, while the Italians went for more greco-roman concepts and a lot of curves and ornaments(full blown renaissance). This era is also the era of experiments, with attempts to mix both guns and swords together.
Garbage photo, but whatever, shows the gothic style well.
Incredibly baller cannon. Not meant to fire obviously. But still baller.
4 barreled musket. Notice the 4 flintlocks and 4 triggers. Obviously meant for hunting - although firing all 4 at the same time must create quite a bang.
Looks like normal maces? The one on the left is actually a gun-mace. The handle can be ''turned'' and a bullet will fire from the top.
The top of the mace. Notice the hole on top - this is where the bullet would come out.
Cricket gun M.I.B anyone?
Tons of rifles. Obviously the bottom one are royal rifles, in pre-rifling era where the only way to improve gun precision is to elongate the barrel. I would laugh my ass off if i saw someone with that in battle(imagine that at Waterloo or Yorktown!)
There's a solid collection of Japanese, Turkish, Chinese, Celtic and viking stuff there. I was VERY impressed by the skill work of pre-roman metallurgy. Some of the celtic and early greek weapons are absolutely stunning, considering this stuff was made almost 3000 years ago. Viking swords are impressive as well - they are multi layered(3-4 layers of steel, thus preventing a complete destruction in case of rust.)
7th century BC helmet from greece. Absolutely stunning metalwork.
The ottoman collection. The middle one is very impressive. Notice the jade stone along the barrel. Gorgeous.
There's a large collection of post XVII century stuff - tons of flags, armors, muskets and other. While not as impressive, still cool to see Napoleon's russian campaign coat or the sword of Frederick II of prussia.
I had seen a Bonaparte hat in the past, but his Russian campaign coat is a real classic.
18th century captured standard. Love Prussia's eagle signs.
Various battle standards captured over century's by french army's.
Gorgeous napoleonic swords owned by Marshall Murat and Lannes(if i recall well).
This picture cannot give justice to how ridiculously big Napoleon's tomb is. It is worth the cost alone of the museum to see his tomb.
There's tons of other stuff there, including WW1/ww2 stuff and a lot of cavalry uniforms, however it is so specific to war buffs you won't learn much unless you really are into that stuff. All in all - the military museum is awesome but you need to dig that stuff - don't go there with the GF unless she's in that stuff or else she's gonna be bored.
