13 novembre 2012
i took this walk with alicia, annie, and sage. it was one of the best walks! i mean, they're all great. but i loved this one because we got to talk the whole time. it was super fun.
we started this walk on the pont alexandre iii ||| alexander iii's bridge. this bridge is, of course, where anastasia killed rasputin once and for all by stepping on his talisman. "this is for my family! and this is for dmitri! and this? this is for YOU!" and then he dies all dramatically. good movie. you should watch it if you haven't seen it before. it's also the bridge that her father, nicholas ii, built to symbolize the friendship of russia and france. it's a very nice bridge.
after crossing the bridge, we walked over to the musée rodin. i am absolutely in love with that museum. i think we were there at the perfect time. the garden was cold, but it wasn't unbearable. the leaves were all yellow and were just beginning to fall on the ground. and of course, we had to stop at the thinker and take the classic "thinker" photo. the whole museum is inside a small château built in the 1720s. it's gorgeous. easily one of my top favorite museums in paris.
after visiting the musée rodin, we went to the hôtel des invalides. this huge building - part museum, part veteran's home - was built in the 1670s. the dôme of the invalides building was dedicated to the god mars during the revolution, and was later over-hauled by king louis-philippe because of political pressure. he had napoleon i's remains placed there. i have never seen a tomb quite so momentous. it was really quite ridiculous (and i mean that in the kindest way possible). one day when my blog lets me upload photos again, i will fix all of these posts and put in some photos. i'm really sorry it's not working. sometimes the internet really stinks.
anyway, part of the invalides has been tranformed into the musée de l'armée. it's also still used as a veteran's home, which i think is way awesome. the museum is really cool. and massive. it's filled with war artifacts. i think the thing that i will never forget about that museum was napoleon i's horse. yes, his horse. the french had that horse taxidermied after it died and it is on display. it was more than a little creepy. but also kinda cool. in a morbid sort of way.
another fact that is kind of horrifying is that during wwi, at the battle of verdun, the french lost more men in that single battle than america has ever lost in all of its foreign wars combined. pretty sobering. during the entire war, france lost over 4 million men. that was 11 percent of the entire population. it puts things into perspective - made me realize just how big of a scar this war left on france.
after visiting this museum, the walk led us over to the champ-de-mars in front of the eiffel tower. its where military exercises were conducted in the past and is now just a large park. we didn't go up to the top of the eiffel tower, though, because we've done that already with dr hurlbut and jennie for an fhe activity! that was super fun, and the views of paris are fantastic from the top.
the tower was originally built in 1889 for the exposition universelle to demonstrate france's engineering power. it was hated at first, and it was built to be removed, but it was saved because it functioned as a broadcasting tower. it has since become a symbol of paris and is now the most recognizable building in the world.
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