My favorites included:
Chuck Norris' self-portrait:
This very large woman (seriously big):
and
We arrived around 4 and the place closed by 5:30 which only gave us a chance to check out the top floor, but it was pretty amazing. The museum used to be a train station from what I heard. It looked like it:
Tom's the sort of guy that likes to check out new places, so on the way back we figured we'd hit up The Tuileries Gardens, a very beautiful and very large area in front of the Louvre. Sort of odd for a garden in that the grass that is there is not to be walked on. Instead, visitors are to walk on white dirt roads throughout the area. There is a large fountain and beautiful statues around the area. The Louvre looms in the background. Really, really amazing. Tom and I walked into the Louvre, but it had closed. Still, we picked up a list of the major attractions and figured that we'll head back one other day while we're here. The building is amazing. I know I've already said it, but it's incredible. So massive and so much is carved on the outside. Since the Louvre is so close to Notre Dame, we walked over and went inside. A mass was going on while tourists walked around the outside. Again, massive and so ornate. For those of you who don't know what Notre Dame looks like, see the above photo.
We caught the metro home and I made a dinner of chicken, rice, spinach, mushrooms, and tomatoes in a sort of skillet thing. Granted, there are probably better things to eat, but I'm on the economy budget and it's safe and fills me up.
Oh, last thing. On the way back from D'Arty I passed by and walked through the Montparnasse Cemetery where Sartre, Cesar Franck, and other famous people are buried. Beautifully ornate tombs are located there. It reminds me a lot of the cemeteries that you see in New Orleans. Very calm there too. It's weird how much beauty can exist where death is. Either poetically pointing to the beauty of sacrifice. Or effectively making a point for futility. Haven't figured that out yet. It was good to think about mortality for a bit though. Haven't done that in a while. Kind of played into deciding the next piece I should write. More about that later though.
That's about it for things I've seen recently. Can't stress the beauty of this place. And how much I feel like I'm at Disneyland by Pirates of the Caribbean.
-BC
2 comments:
So while you are learning all sorts of complicated things, I feel I am getting a teeny-tiny music lesson as well when reading your blogs. They make me laugh as well, look forward to reading more. No pics of the Louvre or gardens? What happened there?
It is better to go to a house of mourning Than to go to a house of feasting, Because that is the end of every man, And the living takes it to heart. Eccles.7:2
Matthew Henry said: Reputation for piety and honesty is more desirable than all the wealth and pleasure in this world. It will do more good to go to a funeral than to a feast. We may lawfully go to both, as there is occasion; our Saviour both feasted at the wedding of his friend in Cana, and wept at the grave of his friend in Bethany. But, considering how apt we are to be vain and indulge the flesh, it is best to go to the house of mourning, to learn the end of man as to this world. Seriousness is better than mirth and jollity. That is best for us which is best for our souls, though it be unpleasing to sense. It is better to have our corruptions mortified by the rebuke of the wise, than to have them gratified by the song of fools. The laughter of a fool is soon gone, the end of his mirth is heaviness.
Maybe the beauty of a graveyard is linked to the beauty of the eternal-God.
Post a Comment