France | WheatleyFamily.net

Nov23

Artistic Paris Photos

I had been meaning to post some pictures of our Paris trip that, with a little help from Photoshop and Picasa, we’ve given a more artistic flare.

Some pictures we converted to black and white, while others, we’ve applied brush strokes. It’s interesting to see how changing the color or adding brush strokes can change the tone of the picture.

Adding brushstrokes seem to add a nostolgic feel to the scene and it’s one of my favorites. Rather than a harsh picture showing every detail, it is soft and acts more like a memory, not recording every detail, but capturing the feeling of the moment.

Changing the picture color to black and white adds a professional touch to the picture since there were so many excellent pictures taken back in the day with just black and white film.

The sepia tone adds an almost reverence to the picture especially the picture at the tomb of the unkown soldier.

Some of the effects were just for fun and brought out a unique element in the photo making it distinct and more interesting.

Pictured below are: The Louvre, a street in Montmatre, Notre Dame, The Sacre Couer, walking towards the Arc, the home of Victor Hugo, the Eiffel Tower, a few views from the Eiffel Tower, and a number of views of Montmartre at night.

To see the detail and brush strokes, click on any of the pictures to see a larger version. You can from there click the Slide Show button in the photo album to view full screen.

Related Paris Posts:

Paris Day 1 – The Trip and Arrival

Paris Day 2 – The Louvre, Jardin Des Tuileries, Champs Elysees, Arc de Triomphe, and Tour Eiffel

Paris Day 3 – Notre Dame, Palais du Luxembourg

Paris Day 5 – Outside the Louvre and Return by Train

Paris, France Video

Oct28

Paris, France Video

We took a lot of pictures on our trip and a little bit of video. The places we visited were absolutely beautiful, and the city truly was amazing from the view at the top of the Eiffel Tower. The video didn’t quite capture the light of the city at night. It was awesome.

Related Paris Posts:

Paris Day 1 – The Trip and Arrival

Paris Day 2 – The Louvre, Jardin Des Tuileries, Champs Elysees, Arc de Triomphe, and Tour Eiffel

Paris Day 3 – Notre Dame, Palais du Luxembourg

Paris Day 4 – Bastille, Opera House, Victor Hugo’s Home, Jardin des Plantes, City of Lights

Paris Day 5 – Outside the Louvre and Return by Train

Paris, France Video

Oct08

Paris Day 5 – Outside the Louvre and Return by Train

Our last morning, Tuesday, we had enough time to visit or revisit one more site. Angie wanted to see the Louvre again. We took the Metro down to the Louvre and it came out into the mall next to the Louvre. The shops weren’t open, but it was interesting to see.

A walkway from one of the hallways of the outer court.

We saw when we came out in the morning that our street was wet, we thought it had rained but saw that it was just our street that was wet. We saw this man outside the Louvre and knew what happened. They wash the streets with water to get ride of the garbage, dust, etc.

Looking back the other direction, is the Louvre and the metro station entrance that we took back to our apartment.

Angie in front of the Louvre.

We got back on the metro and picked up our bags. Instead of trying to get a cab or shuttle bus to take us back to the airport, we hopped on the metro and connected with the “B” line train that runs straight to the airport. We were at terminal two, and the train dropped us off right there. We planned on about 45-50 minutes to get to the airport, and it worked out great. The platform that the train left from had been changed that day, but we asked the metro station attendant and saw the signs and made it.

We saw to missionaries sitting at one of the train stations. We had wanted to see a pair of LDS missionaries while we were there, and we did see them from the train. We enjoyed taking the train because we got to see the single family homes and neighborhoods outside the city. When you ride the train, make sure to hold on to your ticket, because it’s used again when you exit the train station.

We had a bit of walking to do at the airport, but we made it just in time for boarding to start. The guard at security that checked passports before you go through was pretty funny (on purpose) as he looked at my passport and then gave me “the eye” to determine if I was the one pictured. He was very polite and offered the foot “booties” to wear because you have to take your shoes off to go through the metal detector.

We had a fantastic trip and were so impressed that we did not see any overweight Parisians, and we saw a whole lot.

The plane ride back was enjoyable. We watched Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame. It had been a very long time since I had seen the film, and it was fun to see since we had been there. I read a lot from Les Miserables on the plane ride home after watching the movie and didn’t even get close to finishing. The book is an excellent read, and there are many life lessons contained within it.

Related Paris Posts:

Paris Day 1 – The Trip and Arrival

Paris Day 2 – The Louvre, Jardin Des Tuileries, Champs Elysees, Arc de Triomphe, and Tour Eiffel

Paris Day 3 – Notre Dame, Palais du Luxembourg

Paris Day 4 – Bastille, Opera House, Victor Hugo’s Home, Jardin des Plantes, City of Lights

Paris Day 5 – Outside the Louvre and Return by Train

Paris, France Video

Oct05

Paris Day 4 – Bastille, Opera Bastille, Victor Hugo’s House, Jardin des Plantes, City of Lights

Our 4th day in Paris was Monday. Since we visited many of the major sites by this time, we reserved Monday as a day where we could see something new or go back to places that we liked. We kept the schedule open and picked out a few new places to go.

We decided we would like to see Victor Hugo’s home which had been turned into a museum. We got off at the Bastille Metro Station and saw a huge monument there called the July Column (pictured below). The Opera House was on the side of the street we walked on.

The July Column marks the storming of the Bastille. From Wikipedia:

The Bastille was a fortress-prison in Paris, known formally as Bastille Saint-Antoineâ€”Number 232, Rue Saint-Antoineâ€”best known today because of the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789, which along with the Tennis Court Oath is considered the beginning of the French Revolution. The event was commemorated one year later by the FÃªte de la FÃ©dÃ©ration. The French national holiday, celebrated annually on 14 July is officially the FÃªte Nationale, and officially commemorates the FÃªte de la FÃ©dÃ©ration, but it is commonly known in English as Bastille Day. Bastille is a French word meaning “castle” or “stronghold”, or “bastion”; used with a definite article (la Bastille in French, the Bastille in English), it refers to the prison.

The Bastille was built as the Bastion de Saint-Antoine during the Hundred Years’ War. The Bastille originated as the Saint-Antoine gate, but from 1370-1383, this gate was extended to create a fortess, to defend the east end of Paris and the HÃ´tel Saint-Pol royal palace. After the war, it was reused as a state prison, with Louis XIII the first king to send prisoners there.

The archives of the Bastille show that it largely held common criminals (forgers, embezzlers, swindlers, etc.), as well as people imprisoned for religious reasons (Protestants and Convulsionists) and those responsible for printing or writing forbidden pamphlets. People of high rank were sometimes held there too, and so the prison (which could only hold a little over 50 people) was far less sordid a place than most of the Parisian prisons. But the secrecy maintained around the Bastille and its prisoners gave it a sinister reputation. (Source: Bastille. (2008, October 4). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 16:46, October 5, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bastille&oldid=242983348)

The task to find Victor Hugo’s home proved challenging as the map showed that the house was on the corner of the round-a-bout at the July Column. The house was no where to be seen. We did find a sign pointing in the direction of the home. We walked down the street.

We found a flower shop on the way, but still found it difficult without good signs to find Victor Hugo’s home. We kept walking and based on a description of the home/apartment where he lived, we turned down a street.

We thought for sure we had found the house because the home at the end of the street looked like the picture from the walking tour guide book we picked up at the airport. Little did we know…

Angie sat down at a little cafe to illustrate all the cafes we saw all over Paris.

We reached the redbrick structure at the end of the street and walking through a large arch in the building and saw a courtyard surrounded by buildings just like the one we walked under. Which one was Victor Hugo’s?

There was a lovely park in the square and we walked through it a couple times as we sought the home of Victor Hugo. Again, we walked a lot trying to find where the museum was.

Under those red buildings, was a covered walkway all the way around the square.

We walked into a little garden which had an art exhibit. It was beautiful, and I believe it was called Sully.

We finally found Victor Hugo’s home! It was in one of the corners of the square. The funny thing was that the door was closed. After pressing the button to call in, we found out that the museum was closed on Mondays! So we got a picture of the entrance.

Since we could go in the museum, I have place a little bit about it below. From Wikipedia:

The museum is in the Place des Vosges and dates from 1605 when a lot was granted to Isaac Arnauld in the south-east corner of the square. It was substantially improved by the de Rohans family, who gave the building its current name of HÃ´tel de Rohan-GuÃ©mÃ©nÃ©e. Victor Hugo was 30 when he moved into the house in October 1832 with his wife AdÃ¨le. They rented a 280 square metre apartment on the second floor. The mansion was converted into a museum when a large donation was made by Paul Meurice to the city of Paris to buy the house.

The museum consists of an antechamber leading through the Chinese living room and medieval style dining room to Victor Hugoâ€™s bedroom where he died in 1885. (Source: Maison de Victor Hugo. (2008, September 24). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17:49, October 5, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Maison_de_Victor_Hugo&oldid=240778537)

On our way out, we stopped and went inside this beautiful cathedral.

We then decided to hop on the metro and go to the Jardin des Plantes.

The gardens were beautiful and very unique since they were a botanical garden and had exhibits from the natural history museum. From Wikipedia:

The garden was originally planted by Guy de La Brosse, Louis XIII’s physician, in 1626 as a medicinal herb garden. It was originally known as the Jardin du Roi. In 1640 it opened to the public.

After a period of decline, Jean-Baptiste Colbert took administrative control of the gardens. Dr. Guy Crescent Fagon was appointed in 1693, and he surrounded himself with a team of brilliant botanists, including Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, Antoine de Jussieu, Antoine Laurent de Jussieu and his son Adrien-Henri.

The Comte de Buffon became the curator in 1739 and he expanded the gardens greatly, adding a maze, the Labyrinth, which remains today. In 1792 the Royal Menagerie was moved to the gardens from Versailles. (Source: Jardin des Plantes. (2008, September 24). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 17:17, October 5, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jardin_des_Plantes&oldid=240778853)

Of course we had to take a picture next to the dinosaur which stood outside the Natural History Museum.

In the evening, our last evening in Paris, we decided to climb back up the steps to the Sacre Coeur Church. We took a picture of the Eiffel Tower that can been seen from the top of the hill and lit by the sunset. We ate dinner at Montmartre at a restaurant. We had steak and French Fries in France! The chocolate Mousse we had for dessert was incredible. It was Angie’s birthday and we enjoyed eating out. The other nights, we cooked our own food at the apartment since it’s expensive to eat out at restaurants.

The Sacre Coeur Church was beautiful at night. You can see the steps in front of the Church below and there were still a lot of people there. Many had dinners that the were eating there.

Even the walks in Paris were beautiful and especially so at night. Below are the stairs leading down the street where we stayed.

Proceeding down our street, we were in awe of the simple beauty of the buildings and lights around us.

We decided to take the metro into the city and go back to Notre Dame and see if we could get a picture of the Rose Window lit at night. The church was showing a film in the cathedral, so the inside wasn’t lit while we were there, but we took pictures there with our camera stand.

Notre Dame on the river was so beautiful at night.

We stood on the bridge just by the cathedral and took a picture. Angie had purchased the scarf up at the shops at Montemartre that night. It was a little chilly at night, and many many of the Parisians wore similar scarfs. We really didn’t see many tourist shops on our trip, but there were a few in Montmartre, and so we picked up a couple souvenirs there.

Related Paris Posts:

Paris Day 1 – The Trip and Arrival

Paris Day 2 – The Louvre, Jardin Des Tuileries, Champs Elysees, Arc de Triomphe, and Tour Eiffel

Paris Day 3 – Notre Dame, Palais du Luxembourg

Paris Day 4 – Bastille, Opera House, Victor Hugo’s Home, Jardin des Plantes, City of Lights

Paris Day 5 – Outside the Louvre and Return by Train

Paris, France Video

Oct01

Paris Day 3 – Notre Dame, Palais du Luxembourg

For breakfast each day, we walked around the corner to the little bakery where we got our baguette and two croissants. The bread was great, but what we really loved was the Brie Cheese. Pictured below, Angie has the cheese and the French bread. I have not tasted cheese until I tasted it in Paris. We put that cheese on crackers and ate to our hearts’ content. The Brie Cheese was in the fridge when we arrived. Staying at an apartment that was part of a bed and breakfast, we had 3 juices in the fridge, three different jams, cream cheese, and a large wedge of the Brie Cheese. We obtained our bread each day with a coupon.

On Sunday, we got up to go to church. We couldn’t find the LDS chapel that we had mapped out, and so we went to services at Notre Dame. We were planning to go to Notre Dame after the LDS services anyway.

The history of Notre Dame is stunning. From Wikipedia:

Notre Dame de Paris is a Gothic cathedral on the eastern half of the ÃŽle de la CitÃ© in Paris, France, with its main entrance to the west. It is the cathedral of Paris and the seat of the Archbishop of that city. Notre Dame de Paris is widely considered one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture. It was restored and saved from destruction by Viollet-le-Duc, one of France’s most famous architects. The name Notre Dame means “Our Lady” in French. Notre Dame de Paris was one of the first Gothic cathedrals, and its construction spanned the Gothic period. Its sculptures and stained glass show the heavy influence of naturalism, giving them a more secular look that was lacking from earlier Romanesque architecture.

Notre Dame de Paris was among the first buildings in the world to use the flying buttress [arched exterior supports]. The building was not originally designed to include the flying buttresses around the choir and nave. After the construction began and the thinner walls (popularized in the Gothic style) grew ever higher, stress fractures began to occur as the walls pushed outward. In response, the cathedral’s architects built supports around the outside walls, and later additions continued as such.

The cathedral suffered desecration during the radical phase of the French Revolution in the 1790s, when much of its religious imagery was damaged or destroyed. During the 19th century, an extensive restoration project was completed, returning the cathedral to its previous state.

In 1160, because the church in Paris had become the “parish church of the kings of Europe”, Bishop Maurice de Sully deemed the current Parisian cathedral unworthy of its lofty role, and had it demolished shortly after he assumed the title of Bishop of Paris. According to legend, de Sully had a vision of a glorious new cathedral for Paris, and sketched it in the dirt outside of the original church. To begin the construction, the bishop had several houses demolished and had a new road built in order to transport materials for the rest of the cathedral.

Construction began in 1163, during the reign of Louis VII, and opinion differs as to whether Maurice de Sully or Pope Alexander III laid the foundation stone of the cathedral. However, both were at the ceremony in question. Bishop de Sully went on to devote most of his life and wealth to the cathedral’s construction.

Construction of the west front, with its distinctive two towers, began circa 1200, before the nave had been completed, contrary to normal construction practice. Over the construction period, numerous architects worked on the site, as is evidenced by the differing styles at different heights of the west front and towers. Between 1210 and 1220, the fourth architect oversaw the construction of the level with the rose window and the great halls beneath the towers. The towers were completed around 1245, and the cathedral was completed around 1345.

Significant events at Notre Dame

1185 â€” Heraclius of Caesarea calls for the Third Crusade from the still-incomplete cathedral.

1239 â€” The Crown of Thorns is placed in the cathedral by St. Louis during the construction of Sainte-Chapelle.

1302 â€” Philip the Fair opens the first States-General.

December 16, 1431 â€” Henry VI of England is crowned King of France.

1450 â€” Wolves of Paris trapped and are killed on the steps of the Cathedral.

November 7, 1455 â€” Isabelle RomÃ©e, the mother of Joan of Arc, petitions a papal delegation to overturn her daughter’s conviction for heresy.

April 24, 1558 â€” Mary I of Scotland is married to the Dauphin FranÃ§ois (later FranÃ§ois II of France), son of Henry II of France.

August 18, 1572 â€” Henry of Navarre (later Henry IV of France) marries Marguerite de Valois.

September 10, 1573 â€” Henri de Valois took an oath in Notre Dame Cathedral to respect traditional liberties and the law on religious freedom that had been passed during the interregnum in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He agreed to two documents, the Henrician articles and the pacta conventa (sworn articles). In them, the king recognized the principle of free election and abandoned all succession claims.[1]

December 2, 1804 â€” the coronation ceremony of NapolÃ©on I and his wife JosÃ©phine, with Pope Pius VII officiating.

1909 â€” Joan of Arc is beatified.

May 16, 1920 â€” Joan of Arc is canonized.

June 2, 1937 â€” Louis Vierne is appointed Organist of Notre-Dame de Paris after a heavy competition (with judges including Charles-Marie Widor) against the 500 most talented organ players of the era. He dies at the cathedral organ (as was his life-long wish) as he is nearing the end of his final concert held at Notre Dame.

August 26, 1944 â€” The Te Deum Mass takes place in the cathedral to celebrate the liberation of Paris. (According to some accounts the Mass was interrupted by sniper fire from both the internal and external galleries.)

November 12, 1970 â€” The Requiem Mass of General Charles de Gaulle is held.

May 31, 1980 â€” After the Magnificat of this day, Pope John Paul II celebrates Mass on the parvis in front of the cathedral.

January 1996â€”The Requiem Mass of FranÃ§ois Mitterrand is held.

August 10, 2007 â€” The Requiem Mass of Jean-Marie Cardinal Lustiger, archbishop emeritus of Paris, is held.

During the early 19th century, the cathedral was in a state of disrepair, and city planners began to contemplate tearing it down. French novelist Victor Hugo, an admirer of the cathedral, wrote his novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame (titled in French Notre Dame de Paris) in part to raise awareness of the cathedral’s heritage, which sparked renewed interest in the cathedral’s fate. A campaign to collect funds to save the cathedral followed, culminating in the 1845 restorations. (Source: Notre Dame de Paris. (2008, September 25). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 21:13, September 28, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Notre_Dame_de_Paris&oldid=240874905)

We crossed the bridge over the River Seine and entered the park at the back of the cathedral. This was the first place that I could access the Internet, so pictured below, I’m using my iPod to send emails telling family that we made it. The park was beautiful, and there were artists selling their paintings.

In the main courtyard of the church stood a large statue of Charlemagne. I knew Charlemagne was crown emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, and thought that he lived in Italy. After reading a bit from his history, I see why there was interest in Charlemagne in France. My family line descends from Charlemagne.

From Wikipedia:

Charlemagne (pronounced /ËˆÊƒÉ‘rlÉ¨meÉªn/; Latin: Carolus Magnus or Karolus Magnus, meaning Charles the Great) (747 â€“ 28 January 814) was King of the Franks from 768 to his death. He expanded the Frankish kingdoms into a Frankish Empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned Imperator Augustus by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800 as a rival of the Byzantine Emperor in Constantinople. His rule is also associated with the Carolingian Renaissance, a revival of art, religion, and culture through the medium of the Catholic Church. Through his foreign conquests and internal reforms, Charlemagne helped define both Western Europe and the Middle Ages. He is numbered as Charles I in the regnal lists of France, Germany, and the Holy Roman Empire.

The son of King Pippin the Short and Bertrada of Laon, he succeeded his father and co-ruled with his brother Carloman I. The latter got on badly with Charlemagne, but war was prevented by the sudden death of Carloman in 771. Charlemagne continued the policy of his father towards the papacy and became its protector, removing the Lombards from power in Italy, and waging war on the Saracens, who menaced his realm from Spain. It was during one of these campaigns that Charlemagne experienced the worst defeat of his life, at Roncesvalles (778). He also campaigned against the peoples to his east, especially the Saxons, and after a protracted war subjected them to his rule. By forcibly converting them to Christianity, he integrated them into his realm and thus paved the way for the later Ottonian dynasty.

Today he is regarded not only as the founding father of both French and German monarchies, but also as the father of Europe: his empire united most of Western Europe for the first time since the Romans, and the Carolingian renaissance encouraged the formation of a common European identity. (Source: Charlemagne. (2008, September 27). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 21:41, September 28, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Charlemagne&oldid=241356719)

The Statue of Charlemagne in the courtyard of the Notre Dame Cathedral.

We waited in quite a line to climb the stairs to the top of Notre Dame. There was no charge on the day we were there which is maybe one reason the line was long. They also didn’t let more than a handful of people go up at a time.

The woman pictured above came to look at the street while we waited in line to go into the towers of the cathedral. From the first lookout of Notre Dame (Below).

I’d probably be like that (pictured above) too if I’d have to sit on the top of the tower for 800 + years.

Pictured below is the view of the Sacre Coeur Church and the Montmartre hill where we were staying. We stayed on the other side of the hill behind the basilica.

The bell was huge! You could stand up inside the bell and not hit your head. Above, Angie is pictured in the doorway to the bells.

The very top of the tower was caged to prevent mischief.

The stairs were very hard to go up and down with two-way traffic. We went halfway up one tower, and then walked across to the gift shop. The gift shop had an interesting family tree of the royal families that ruled France. The shop also had a large banner showing a picture of the room where Quasimodo hid Esmeralda in the Hunchback of Notre Dame. We then walked over and up the stairs to the top. The stairs were very narrow. You can see from the picture how well they were worn after eight hundred years.

We read from the Hunchback of Notre Dame in the shadows of the Cathedral.

We visited the Luxembourg gardens, and they were absolutely beautiful. ”Stunning” is perhaps a better term for how large and beautiful the spacious garden was. Statues were found throughout the park, large grassy areas, and small, almost private walkways. It was in one of these walkways in Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables that Jean Valjean meets Marius and Cosette. Marius came across Jean Valjean and Cosette while they were sitting on a bench, so we read from Les Miserables there.

The Luxembourg park had a fountain where kids pushed small sail boats. Although there were lots of people there, the gardens didn’t feel crowded. There was plenty of space for solitude if one required it.

Statues of the Queens of France lined one of the walkways.

The Eiffel Tour was still visible from certain portions of the park.

Notice how the trees are cut like boxes. We saw that style in many parks.

We took our picture by the original Lady Liberty. We hauled the camera stand along with us all day and wanted to take this shot, but right as we were getting set up, the police started to whistle throughout the park signaling that the park was closing. I hurried and ran in by Angie and we took the picture, packed up, and left.

Below is a Mini car used by the Police. My dream car, believe it or not is a Mini Cooper. There was a show in one of the little squares of old/unique police vehicles. The show hid the metro station that we had a hard time finding. We had to come from our apartment and exit at the station to find out where it was.

The map of the city we picked up for free at the airport had the metro stations, but they weren’t exactly exact if you catch my meaning.

After Luxembourg, we went back to Notre Dame at night. We saw some roller bladders there (and funny enough) when we watched Ratatoullie, we saw the main characters rollerblading in the exact same spot.

The pictures below show the difference with the same shot location using the flash and not using the flash. Not using the flash makes a much better picture at night.