Today
my parents and I headed over to the Louvre and Notre Dame Cathedral. At the Notre Dame Cathedral there was some kind of a festival. They had a strong man competition and were baking different kinds of breads in a tent. It smelled fantastic, so we bought some.
Construction of the cathedral began in 1160. It was among the first buildings in the world to use the flying buttress (arched exterior supports). These supports were built due to the thinner walls (popularized by Gothic style) grew so high that stress fractures began to occur, pushing the walls outward.
The famous gargoyles were placed around the outside to serve as column supports and water spouts. They were once covered in vivid colors. The cathedral was complete by 1345.
There were just a few things I was really interested in seeing at The Louvre: The Mona Lisa, The Code of Hammurabi and the Venus di Milo. Apparently it was a holiday weekend in Paris. They were celebrating the assumption of Jesus in to heaven so there were a zillion people out and about. The museum is huge and it is said that it would take 9 months to see all of the works of art there.
We had a map and followed the maze of hallways in the Denon Wing until we finally found the Mona Lisa. The was a huge crowd gathered around it, and it is surprising how small it actually is. You are allowed to take pictures in the Louvre, but no flash. People just don't give a crap. There was a velvet rope around the Mona Lisa and it was covered in a glass casing. There was a sign showing no flash was allowed but people were using it anyway. There were guards all around but they just ignored it. We meandered our way to the Venus de Milo and finally to the Code of Hammurabi.
It took probably an hour to find it just when I was about ready to give up. The code of Hammurabi was written in 1790BC and were supposedly delivered to Hammurabi bu God. Here is an example of a law: If a man give his child to a nurse and the child dies in her hands, but the nurse unbeknown to the father and mother nurses another child, then they shall convict her of having nursed another child without the knowledge of the father and mother and her breasts shall be cut off. Yikes!
Why does this guy have a machete in his head?
Construction of the cathedral began in 1160. It was among the first buildings in the world to use the flying buttress (arched exterior supports). These supports were built due to the thinner walls (popularized by Gothic style) grew so high that stress fractures began to occur, pushing the walls outward.
The famous gargoyles were placed around the outside to serve as column supports and water spouts. They were once covered in vivid colors. The cathedral was complete by 1345.
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| Dude feeding birds |
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| Close up of the exterior. |
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| The chapel |
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| Looks like all roads lead away from Paris! (0 km marker) |
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| Gargoyles! |
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| Vending machine knives?! |
There were just a few things I was really interested in seeing at The Louvre: The Mona Lisa, The Code of Hammurabi and the Venus di Milo. Apparently it was a holiday weekend in Paris. They were celebrating the assumption of Jesus in to heaven so there were a zillion people out and about. The museum is huge and it is said that it would take 9 months to see all of the works of art there.
We had a map and followed the maze of hallways in the Denon Wing until we finally found the Mona Lisa. The was a huge crowd gathered around it, and it is surprising how small it actually is. You are allowed to take pictures in the Louvre, but no flash. People just don't give a crap. There was a velvet rope around the Mona Lisa and it was covered in a glass casing. There was a sign showing no flash was allowed but people were using it anyway. There were guards all around but they just ignored it. We meandered our way to the Venus de Milo and finally to the Code of Hammurabi.
It took probably an hour to find it just when I was about ready to give up. The code of Hammurabi was written in 1790BC and were supposedly delivered to Hammurabi bu God. Here is an example of a law: If a man give his child to a nurse and the child dies in her hands, but the nurse unbeknown to the father and mother nurses another child, then they shall convict her of having nursed another child without the knowledge of the father and mother and her breasts shall be cut off. Yikes!
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| The statue of Nike |
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| Lisa and the Mona Lisa. |
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| The Code of Hammurabi |
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| Venus di Milo |
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| Painting depicting the coronation of Napoleon in Notre Dame Cathedral. |
Why does this guy have a machete in his head? |
| Umbrellas on the Champs Elysees |
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