France 2018: Paris

Paris, France:

Eiffel Tower at night

At the end of March, I spent a long weekend together with a friend discovering Paris.

No words are needed to descibe the wonders and charms of Paris – abundant books and songs have been written about the city of love! I can only add that it is easy to spend more than a week exploring its many sights. This is particularly true due to the many large museums with their innumerable pieces of art all deserving the visitor’s time – and patience in the long queues at the entrances! Since we had only 3.5 days, we could only get a first overview and I will certainly return some other day!

Sacré-Cœur

view across Paris from Sacré-Cœur

Sacré-Cœur

inside Sacré-Cœur

view towards Eiffel Tower

Sacré-Cœur

alley near Sacré-Cœur

Moulin Rouge

underground mall at the Louvre

the inverted pyramid

inside the Louvre

‘Mona Lisa’ by Leonardo da Vinci (1503-06)

‘La Vierge et l’Enfant, dite Madone des Guidi de Faenza’ by Sandro Botticelli (1465-70)

‘Portrait of a young man’ by Sandro Botticelli (1475-80)

‘Nike of Samothrace’ (2nd century BC)

beautiful ceiling

‘Summer’ by Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1573)

African Arts

Baga sculpture, Guinea (20th century

sculpture from Vanuatu (19th century)

sculpture from Indonesia (18th century)

sculpture from Easter Island (11th-15th century)

sculpture from Canada (19th century)

inside the Louvre

painting at the ceiling

detail of a stele from Egypt (1843 BC)

‘The Seated Scribe’ from Saqqara, Egypt (ca. 2450-2325 BC)

‘The Last Supper’ by Philippe de Champaigne (1652)

Pyramid in the central courtyard of the Louvre

‘The Lacemaker’ by Johannes Vermeer (1669-1670)

‘Self-Portrait, Bare-Headed’ by Rembrandt (1633)

sculpture gallery

‘The Virgin of Jeanne d’Evreux’ (1324-1339)

Apartments of Napoleon III

Grand Salon

Dining Room

Cone of Urukagina (2350 BC)

Bull capital from the Susa Palace, Iran

inscribed plate from Palmyra, Syria (4 BC)

relief from Palmyra, Syria (1st century AD)

sarcophagus of Ramses III (1184-1153 BC)

grand sphinx

foundations of the Louvre

‘Venus de Milo’ (130-100 BC)

panel depicting a poetry contest from Isfahan, Iran (17th century)

female statues from the Cyclades, Greece (2700-2300 BC)

entrance hall

the inverted pyramid

Louvre

Pyramid

Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel

path through the Jardin des Tuileries

ferris wheel

Luxor Obelisk

Champs-Élysées

Grand Palais

view across the Pont Alexandre III towards Les Invalides

metro station

Champs-Élysées

fancy shopping at the Champs-Élysées

Arc de Triomphe

metro station

Palais de Chaillot

Eiffel Tower

Palais de Chaillot

Eiffel Tower

view along the Seine

Palais de Chaillot

Eiffel Tower

École Militaire

Dôme des Invalides

Musée de l’Armée

court of honour of the Invalides

Statue of Napoleon

old armour

exhibition

‘Dead Uhlan from the 6th regiment (Altmark) of Von Bredow Brigade’ by E. Detaille and A. de Neuville (1870)

St Francis Xavier’s Church

Notre-Dame

Seine next to Notre-Dame

Notre-Dame

inside Notre-Dame

wood carvings

stained glass windows

door of Notre-Dame

Seine

Père Lachaise Cemetery

Tomb of Oscar Wilde

Père Lachaise Cemetery

Tomb of Frédéric Chopin

Tomb of Georges Cuvier and family

creepy tomb

Tomb of Jim Morrison

‘gifts’ of fans?

Père Lachaise Cemetery

Gallery of Paleontology and Comparative Anatomy

ornaments at the facade

‘Orangutan strangling a Borneo Savage’ by Emmanuel Frémiet (1896)

collection of skeletons

skull of two-headed calf

whale skeletons

Gallery of Palaeontology

saber-toothed cat (Smilodon; Pleistocene, Argentina))

huge fossil crocodile

Gallery of Palaeontology

fossil sea urchins (Miocene, France)

Stegosaurus

Grand Mosque of Paris

Saint-Étienne-du-Mont

Saint-Étienne-du-Mont and Panthéon

Panthéon

crypt

graves

Tomb of Victor Hugo

statue of Voltaire

Tomb of Voltaire

Tomb of Jean-Jacques Rousseau

inside the Panthéon

street scene

Hôtel de Ville

graffiti

Stravinsky Fountain

Centre Georges Pompidou

art exhibition

view across Paris from the Centre Georges Pompidou

view towards Eiffel Tower

view towards Sacré-Cœur

‘Ape, Police, Doctor, Soldier, Me’ by Jim Dine (1997)

‘Nancy and I at Ithaca’ by Jim Dine (1966-69)

‘The Muse’ by Pablo Picasso (1935)

‘Gelb-Rot-Blau’ by Vassily Kandinsky (1925)

‘Chopin’s Waterloo’ by Arman (1962)

‘Erinnerungen an die Spiegelsäle von Brüssel’ by Otto Dix (1920)

Musée d’Orsay

‘La Vérité’ by Jules Lefebvre (1870)

‘Evening’ by James Tissot (1878)

‘Marguerite de Gas’ by Edgar Degas (1858-60)

‘Les Derniers rebelles, scène d’histoire marocaine’ by Jean Joseph Benjamin-Constant (1880)

‘The Sahara’ by Gustave Guillaumet (1867)

‘Cain’ by Fernand Cormon (1880)

Musée d’Orsay

‘Tahitian Women’ by Paul Gauguin (1891)

‘The siesta’ by Vincent Van Gogh (1889-1890)

‘Self-portrait’ by Vincent Van Gogh (1889)

‘Starry Night’ by Vincent Van Gogh (1888)

‘La Cathédrale de Rouen. Le portail et la tour d’Albane, soleil du matin’ by Claude Monet (1893)

‘The Floor Planers’ by Gustave Caillebotte (1875)

Musée d’Orsay

Musée d’Orsay Clock

view across the Seine towards the Louvre

Pont Alexandre III and Grand Palais

Eiffel Tower at night

TGV

TGV

I traveled to and from Paris with the comfortable and super-fast TGV which makes Paris accessible from most parts of Central Europe in a couple of hours!