Please checkout Sukumar’s most previous serving of Paris here.

Say “Paris” and images of the French Revolution, the excesses of King Louis XIV and Napoleon Bonaparte spring to mind. Visitors to Paris will find “Haussmannian Paris” stickier still. Baron Haussmann was a town planner in Emperor Napoleon III’s reign. He almost single-handedly modernized Paris, changing it from a medieval town with narrow, chaotic streets & unsanitary living conditions – to a triumph of modern urban planning. He gave Paris a major make-over, with wide boulevards, geometrically intersecting streets, parks, bridges, modern sewers, water-works, wide open spaces – and beautiful buildings, with uniform facades, built with locally quarried limestone. Numerous buildings from Haussmann’s period are impeccably maintained.

Arguably, the most touching site we visited was the Shoah (Holocaust) Memorial, located in the Jewish Quarter in Le Marais. During WW II, almost 76,000 French Jews were rounded up & sent to Nazi concentration camps. Even the children & the elderly were not spared. Only 2,600 of them returned. The French police maintained detailed records of Jews – even those of their colleagues in the Police force. The shameful part played by the Vichy regime in the annihilation of its own citizens was not disclosed till 1995.

The most poignant parts of the Shoah Memorial are the Crypt & the “Wall of Names”. The names of people who died – and those presumed dead – in the concentration camps are engraved on the wall, alphabetized. I would strongly advise the sensitive & the weak-hearted to stay away from the wall. It was very painful, like being knifed in the stomach. The grim black crypt in the basement is shaped like the Star of David. It has ashes collected from the Warsaw ghetto. It is a reminder of the devil in all of us & how easy it is to lead us astray. All it takes is a mad-man with a cause.

I feel duty-bound to tell you that the 2 major shopping destinations in Paris – Au Printemps and Galeries Lafayette offer a 10% discount for all foreign tourists. Carry your passport to prove your domicile though. Here is the disclaimer: There are no tales of personal triumph from me, in clinching deals in either of the malls. France is very expensive. An intelligent South Asian would simply go to the Takashimaya store in Singapore for good deals. Or if the said smart South Asian is in North America, s/he is better off looking for steals in Canada or in the US of A. I’m thrifty by nature – I demand value for money. If you insist on splurging in France on over-priced items, go ahead. I won’t stop you.

One of the most enduring symbols of Paris is the Arc de Triomphe, with its “Tomb of the Unknown Soldier”. This monument is located at one end of the Champs Elysees, one of the most expensive avenues in the world. The largest Louis Vuitton store is located here, for e.g. Champs Elysees is sort of New York’s 5^th Avenue & Times Square rolled into one. Here is where Parisians get together to welcome the New Year on Dec 31^st.

Some of the snootiest shops in Paris – jewelers such as Boucheron, Van Cleef & Arpels, Cartier et al – are in PlaceVendôme. It is in the 1^st arrondisement, the oldest part of Paris. In the center of this square is a monument erected by Napoleon – it stands sad & lonely like a gawky, self-conscious giant, amidst its glitzy & glamorous neighbors. Directly opposite the monument is the Ritz, one of the most luxurious (read: expensive) hotels in the world. I don’t even want to know their tariffs.

The 2^nd most formidable street in Paris is Rue du Faubourg Saint Honore. Perhaps it is no coincidence that this is close to Place Vendôme. All the leading designers such as Hermes, Versace, Gaultier & co have their flagship stores here. The most famous resident of this street is the French President: The Elysee Palace, the official residence of the Premier is located here.

Which brings us to the most interesting President France has had in a long time. Nicholas Sarkozy is the son of Hungarian immigrants. Well, his father was a Hungarian aristocrat who moved to Paris. Did the French have any concern about electing someone of Hungarian descent? And his wife Carla Bruni is an Italian, though she’s a French citizen now. Does the fact that the 1^st lady of France is an Italian bother the French?

Our questions were met with bafflement. How does it matter that Sarkozy is ethnically a Magyar? – They wondered. Or that Bruni was an Italian once. All that matters is that they’re French now, n’est-ce pas? Excellent, we said meekly. We felt like hugging them & giving them an air-kiss, French-style.

An often overlooked site in Paris is the Pantheon. It was built as a church, but it is known more as a crypt & for its starring role in a scientific pursuit: Foucault hung his pendulum from its dome to prove that earth rotated on its axis. A replica of the revered Foucault’s pendulum still oscillates in the Pantheon. The Who’s Who of French elite are buried in the crypt – For e.g., Voltaire, Rousseau, Emile Zola, Alexandre Dumas, Victor Hugo, Pierre & Marie Curie and Joseph-Louis Lagrange. We perked up when we saw Lagrange’s tomb. Amidst a sea of philosophers, writers & politicians, the mathematician-astronomer seemed like a kindred spirit to yours truly, both engineers by profession. We touched his tomb with awe & reverence.

While we loved the French for their open, liberal attitude and for preserving their heritage, they sometimes – many times – drove the author of this post crazy. I must have been a German in my previous life. Punctuality is my affliction. I may need therapy if I’m seriously late for an appointment. I plan & schedule even the minutiae, like Armageddon was tomorrow. And in France, time is elastic, stretchable. They don’t think anything about 30 minute delays. I did not expect this in a 1^st world country. Please hold my paws, I get emotional just thinking about it.

I don’t know how the Germans occupied this country for any stretch of time. Technically speaking, they should have gone mad in a week. Tearing their hair & clothes, they should have run amok on the streets. But it took the Allied Forces landing on Normandy to drive them out. Hmmm – I’ll never understand it.

Sukumar will continue this series with another photo essay on Paris.

Please read Priya Raju’s excellent write up on the Louvre to appreciate this photo essay better. I want to start the essay with Vermeer’s lace maker that refuses to leave my head even after a month – some what like the earworms that people talk about in the realm of music.

The glass pyramid at entrance of Louvre is much talked about, but i couldn’t get a decent enough picture of it. Instead i choose to present you the inverted pyramids from inside the Louvre.  This area is always crowded and this is the best i could do. It is spectacular to say the least. The inverted pyramids became very famous after Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code. After i saw the glass pyramids in the Louvre, the symbologist in me  couldn’t help guessing that the famous 5th Ave Apple Store in New York is inspired by the glass pyramid in the Louvre. Does anyone else think that?

While we are on the subject of symbols, i think the Winged Victory of Samothrace (below)  inspired the famous scene in the movie Titanic with Kate Winslet standing with her arms outstretched on the hull of the Titanic before Leo De Caprio joins her.  The typical photo of this sculpture leaves out the boat/ship below the sculpture, which is what make me think it inspired the famous Titanic scene. Do you all agree?

As Priya Raju mentioned, this sculpture is one of the top 3 highlights of the Louvre alongside Monalisa and Venus de Milo.

Priya is right. Shouldn’t this magnificent Athena be in the list of top 3 highlights?

Count Baldassare, which in our guide’s opinion, is  better than the Mona Lisa, as Priya mentioned.  This was done by Raphael one of the greatest Renaissance painters.

As Priya mentioned, most people miss the masterful Wedding Feast at Cana by Veronese, though it is right opposite the Mona Lisa.

Here is Napoleon’s coronation by David, one of Napoleon’s favorite painters. He created 2 copies of the same painting, one is at the Versailles Palace. There are a couple of  interesting stories about this painting – Napoleon’s mother who is in the painting watching the proceedings, never really attended the coronation  ceremony. Napoleon had David add her into the painting. I guess this is how history gets distorted! It is said that David was in love with one of Napoleon’s sisters present on the left side of the painting and he deliberately made her look better than the others.

Hobbema’s windmill in the Northern Gallery is a thing of  beauty.

As a researcher into the Indus Valley Civilization, the near eastern antiquities section fascinated me the most. Unfortunately, we couldn’t spend too much time. I saw a cylinder seal, used by the Sumerian/Akkadian seals in the trade with the Indus, for the first time. They are so tiny, which make them quite comparable to the Indus seals which are also equally tiny. Here is an example – you can see how tiny it is when you look at the size of the scaled up images to the right of the seal. Wow!

The Louvre left me with a sense of awe that puts almost every other museum, that i have been to, to shame, including the Smithsonian Museums, the British Museum, the Athens Museum, Egyptian Museum at Cairo etc.   The Louvre will play a great part in luring us back to Paris soon

The paris travelog series will continue with a post from Priya Raju titled “Melange“. Stay tuned.

This is the next serving of our Paris Travelog series. The previous post was a photo-essay by Sukumar. You can check it out here.

A trip to Paris is incomplete without a visit to the fantastic Louvre, which has been a museum since 1793. It is the largest museum in the world. The sprawling complex, spread over 645,000 square feet has around 40,000 exhibits in its permanent collection. Even if one spends 2 or 3 minutes per exhibit, it will take 5 or 6 months to see the museum in full!

The much-talked about Glass Pyramid of the Louvre, “immortalized” by Dan Brown in his book The Da Vinci Code is in the entrance. Conceptualized & built by the American architect I.M.Pei in 1989, the modern composition in metal & Saint Gobain glass has nothing in common with the building behind it. The French were prostrated with grief, they were inconsolable. Then they got used to the pyramid & started bragging about it.

The best way to see Louvre is to take the 2 hour long guided tour, which covers the major attractions, then spending the rest of the day  - or 2 – in the galleries of your choice.

The museum is divided into 3 wings – Denon, Sully & Richelieu. Each wing has several collections, spread out over many Salles (rooms). Salle 7 in the Denon wing has the most famous painting in the world – Mona Lisa or La Giaconda. Protected by a glass pane, the small – and some say highly over-rated – painting by Leonardo da Vinci has no dearth of admirers. But the undisputed star of Salle 7 is the riveting Wedding Feast at Cana by Italian Master Paolo Veronese. The huge, colorful painting has a Biblical theme, like most Renaissance art: It depicts a miracle performed by Jesus Christ at Galilee. It makes the almost mono-chromatic Mona Lisa on the opposing wall look drab & dreary by comparison, da Vinci’s Sfumoto technique notwithstanding.

In my opinion, the best painting by da Vinci is St John the Baptist. Unfortunately, it was loaned to another museum & we couldn’t see it. Now, St John the Baptist was a prophet who foretold the birth of Christ. Look at the painting, the beautiful androgynous face & the enigmatic smile. Prophets have no business looking so good. The step-daughter of King Herod – Salome – fell head over heels in love with St John the Baptist. Sadly, the prophet didn’t find the princess hot enough Some people can’t take a “No” for an answer. So, Salome had the holy man – beheaded.

Our guide clearly didn’t think much of da Vinci. She showed us a remarkable portrait done by Raphael Santi: Count Baldassore Catiglione. “Look at the wonderful painting!” she ordered. “From his elegant clothes, you can make out that he’s wealthy. From his demeanor, his kind eyes & the expression on his face, you can guess that he was a friendly, approachable man!” she said. “This is how a portrait is supposed to be – it should convey the essence of the person being painted. What does Mona Lisa convey?” she spat out.  ”Which portrait do you prefer – Count Castiglione or Mona Lisa?” she asked me. “Well, its difficult to choose between them” I hazarded. Wrong answer. Our guide snorted.

The most depressing painting in the Denon Wing is Théodore Géricault’s The Raft of the Medusa in Salle 77. Done mostly in sorrowful grays, browns and black, it depicts a group of starving ship-wrecked sailors adrift on a sorry-looking raft. Some are dead. The rest look miserable. Some have lost all hope & some are almost mad with grief. If this grim painting doesn’t make you cry, I don’t know what will.

Probably one of the most controversial paintings in the Louvre is Caravaggio’s Death of the Virgin. The painting has darkened with age & depicts the grief-stricken apostles & Mary Magdalene upon the death of Mother Mary. The painting, completed in 1606 AD, caused a stir since it depicted the death of the Virgin – a subject that shocked people. Plus, Caravaggio allegedly used a prostitute as a model. People back then were easily shocked – just like people now. Guess some things never change

Apart from Mona Lisa, the most prized possessions of the Louvre are Venus de Milo and the Winged Victory of Samothrace. The latter dates back to the 3rd Century BC. We admired the artist’s skillful rendering of the statue’s flowing drapes. But, Venus? She & Mona Lisa suffered from the same problem: An even better work of art – a colossal Pallas Athena, in this case – was positioned on the opposing wall. We liked the majestic Athena, the warrior goddess, better than the limb-less Venus. Why, she couldn’t even gather her slippery robes! Perhaps we have a rather common, unartistic soul. Hey, we like what we like.

If you have some time, scoot over to the Near Eastern galleries in the Richelieu wing, if only to see 2 exhibits. Salle 4 has a recreation of an ancient Assyrian temple in Khorsabad, from the time of Sargon II. You can see many people mooning over 2 huge – really huge – sculptures of the Lamassu, mythical winged beasts with a human head & a beatific smile. But the author, obsessed with law, found another exhibit historically more significant: The Codex of Hammurabi. I had goose-bumps when I saw it

Created in the 18th Century BC in Babylon, this is one of the earliest comprehensive compendium of laws created in the world. Written in the Akkadian language in the Cueniform script, the basalt stele covers Commercial, Agricultural, Family & Administrative laws. There are laws governing divorce, inheritance, adoption, incest, slavery etc. The letter of the law. What an integral part it plays in attempting to keep humans human! I almost genuflected before the stele.

The Louvre has something for everyone, whether that someone loves art or not. Our suggestion is to head towards the “Northern School” galleries in the Richelieu wing, which houses paintings by Dutch & Flemish Masters. The subject of the paintings are pastoral scenes, still life, peasants & landscapes – AKA, the life & times of the little people. Far from being coarse, common & unworthy, these paintings are more pleasing – a whole lot more pleasing – than the ones about Kings, Queens, Gods & mythology. If you snort when you hear the word “Art” & dismiss it as high-brow – you should stop by these galleries. The paintings were so soul-satisfying, calming & refreshing.

The most famous painting in this gallery is Jan Vermeer’s Lace-maker. Here are a few more that we couldn’t get enough of: Hobbema’s Water Mill, Van Mieris’s Soap Bubbles, Coorte’s 6 Shells on a Stone Shelf, Snyders’s Group of Birds Perched on Branches, Heda’s Still Life with Silver Goblet & Cuyp’s  Landscape Near Rhenen. Their beauty is their sheer simplicity & universal appeal.

We did find a jarring note in the Louvre. Every single artifact was labeled in French & only in French. Some of the Salles had A-4 sheet-sized cards, listing main attractions in English, but these were hard to come by. Yes – in France, people speak French. But, the world speaks English. It would make the lives of tourists a lot easier if the exhibits are also labeled in English. We found it very difficult to check out the smaller exhibits in the Near Eastern galleries, for e.g. The Louvre does have the mother of all Multimedia Guides, but it covers only their prized possessions – which is < 5% of the permanent collection.

Sukumar will continue this series, with a photo-essay of the Louvre.

Did you all read the previous post on the French Revolution by Priya Raju. If not, you may want to read it before reading this post which is a companion photo essay.

Don’t know if my photos will do justice to the grandeur of the Versailles Palace that Priya described so well. I have always wanted to try a photosynth and decided to try it with the Versailles Palace photos. Hope you all like it?

The famous Hall of Mirrors in the Versailles looked like this. It is a real spectacle to see this in person.

There is a special garden created for the queen outside her room’s window in the Versailles. When we saw it was covered in snow. Still you could imagine how nice it would look in spring. Legend has it that Marie Antoinette had gardeners plant fresh flowers in the garden even if it is not in season.

Her bedroom inside the palace looked like this.

I could go on and on with photos of the Versailles, but i stop here for want of space.

Priya referred to the Place de la Concord as a picnic spot in her post. Here is how it looks.

The Obelisk looks magnificent. The day we landed, we did an illumination city tour and i managed to capture a good photo of the Obelisk illuminated.

The same obelisk without the illumination looks like this.

The infamous Marie Antoinette’s cell looked like this in the Conciergerie with 2 soldiers watching over her 24×7.

Epilog
We will be interrupting our Paris Travelog series to post the Blog Pongal – the best posts of Year 2009, the 5th year we will be doing that. If you have any suggestions on the best posts of 2009, please mention it in the comments section. The next post in the series on the Louvre will be published after that.

Here’s a link to the previous post in this series, a Photo Essay of Paris by Sukumar – the 1st of its kind in this blog.

One can’t visit France & not take an interest in the French Revolution. The explosive revolution of 1789 gave the world the phrase – Liberty, Equality & Fraternity. The monarchy was over-thrown in France & in its place, a democratic republic that had the inalienable rights of the individuals at its core was installed. Or was it? More on that later.

A visit to the Versailles palace is essential, to understand the origins of the French Revolution. During the reign of King Louis XIII, the Louvre served as the royal residence. When his son – the flamboyant Louis XIV took charge – he changed the headquarters from Paris to Versailles. The stunned courtiers, who were happily set in their wayward ways in Gay Paree, were dragged off to the marshy Versailles, whining & whimpering.

The self-absorbed king built a lavish palace worthy of him, le roi soleil (Sun King). Theoretically, the Versailles palace is a testament to the Baroque style. In reality, the over-the-top palace done in red, overlaid with gold leaves is a temple of solipsism. Its impossible not to catch a glimpse of the massive ego of Louis XIV, no matter where you turn.

Louis XIV really did himself well. Elaborate frescoes of Pagan Gods adorn the ceilings of all the rooms. Louis Quatorze fashioned himself after Apollo, the Sun God. His Throne Room was called the “Apollo Chamber”. From his ornate bedroom, he rose everyday facing east. Courtiers vied with each other to hold his chemise when he dressed. The crowning glory of the palace is of course, the Galerie de Glaces (Hall of Mirrors), with its chandeliers & gilded candle-sticks. When esteemed guests such as the King of Siam visited, the Hall was lit with 3,000 candles, its lights magnified by 17 precisely arranged mirrors. It must have been a sight to dream of.

Versailles served as the residence of 3 kings of France, all of them named Louis – Louis XIV, Louis XV & Louis XVI.

BTW, the Queens had to give birth in public, to prove the legitimacy of their children. They gave birth in their chambers, but courtiers closely “scrutinized” the births. Damn, they queued up to see a woman shrieking in labor pain, blood oozing from her loins. Ghastly. Guess they really ran short of entertainment in those days.

Severed from the harsh realities of Paris, the King & the aristocrats settled to an easy, hedonistic life in Versailles. So, they had no idea of the brewing discontent & resentment towards the monarchy among the poor. After a severe financial crisis in the reign of Louis XVI, an acute bread shortage hit France. A group of people stormed the Bastille, the state prison & released its inmates. The French Revolution was born – before it could be contained, before a semblance of order could be established, France made its descent into complete chaos.

Incidentally, nothing remains of the Bastille prison. It was razed to the ground, 2 months into the French Revolution. In its hey-days, it had some rather famous inmates – Voltaire. The Man in the Iron Mask. Oh, he was real enough. No one knew for sure who he was, but that never prevented them from spinning yarns at a feverish pitch. Alexandre Dumas believed that the prisoner was the twin brother of Louis XIV. Others washed the dirty undies of the royal family in public by claiming that the prisoner was the “real” father of Louis XIV: Queen Anne of Austria & her husband Louis XIII had been estranged for many years when Louis XIV was conceived

Coming back to the revolution, on October 1789, Versailles fell. King Louis XVI & his wife, Queen Marie Antoinette were placed on a house arrest in Paris till late 1792, when monarchy finally ended in France. A slew of charges were slapped on the King & the Queen. After a brief mockery of a trial, they were sentenced to death. They met their gruesome end in 1793 in the Place de la Concorde (Concord Square): they were guillotined.

We visited the Conciergerie. It was the royal residence, before it was shifted to the Louvre. In the latter part of the French revolution – known as the Reign of Terror – it was used as a prison. While awaiting trial, Queen Marie Antoinette spent a few months in the Conciergerie as prisoner #280. Visitors can still see her cell. The former Queen & Princess of Austria was watched by 2 male guards at all times – all times. There was no privacy. Marie Antoinette was very sick with uterine cancer then, she was hemorrhaging frequently. She used to beg the guards to look away, while she changed or cleaned up. But the guards pointedly refused: Their mandate was to watch the prisoner with eagle eyes. Orders were orders.

During the Reign of Terror – between June 1793 and July 1794 – almost 17,000 people were guillotined. The “leading light” of the Reign of Terror was a nut-case-cum-fanatic named Maximilien Robespierre. He targeted all the presumed enemies of the revolution – including moderates who did not want to guillotine the royal family – & his political rivals. The Conciergerie became the holding cell of the doomed.

In a strange case of reversal of fortunes, Robespierre was found guilty of tyranny in July 1794. He was guillotined – some say, face up – the next day. He was shot in his lower jaw during his arrest – the wound was possibly self-inflicted. Before guillotining him, the executioner ripped off the bandages covering his wounded jaw. Robespierre’s screams rent the air, as the guillotine came down.

A magnificent Obelisk (see Cleopatra’s Needle) -  taken from the Luxor temple in Egypt, stands sentinel in the spot where the terrible guillotine once stood. Flanked by 2 cheerful fountains, with a ferris wheel behind it, Place de la Concord looks like a picnic spot now. We had a fresh barbe à papa (cotton candy). The gilded top of the obelisk glittered benignly, determined to make us forget the macabre details of years past.

Sukumar will continue this travelog, with another Photo Essay, centered on the French Revolution.