It rained heavily all day, so there was really no point in leaving the apartment except to get groceries. I intend to go back to the Louvre sometime, but I really wasn’t in a museum mood today. Doug and I watched quite a few Family Guys, and later I watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade that I recently acquired while doing homey stuff like dishes, laundry, interspersed with half-hearted efforts to do homework.
We were meeting today at the Arts et Métiers, a museum dedicated to mechanical, optical, electrical and other such inventions; the museum is similar to the Museum of Science and Industry at the Smithsonian. Finding the place was rather hairy, as I forgot to bring my map, and when I got off at the stop there was no quarter section or androissment map that I could look at to get my bearings. Fortunately, I ran into a few of the grads who were also lost, but said that they had walked quite a way down the one street and didn’t find it, so that it must be the other way. When we passed rue Volta I figured we must be getting close. I also liked the subway stop, which was decked out to look like the inside of a submarine, with porthole windows and gears and pipes and stuff all in a copper coating. It was very cool and Jules-Verne-like.
We also had to pay close attention because for our final project we are to design a museum on the Canal Saint Martin for all of the materials to be placed. A big centerpiece of the museum is Foucault’s Pendulum, which was one of the first ways that the visually illustrated the rotation of the early. The original was put in the Pantheon Church, but the one at the museum is a model of it, while the original plumb is on display.
It was all quite interesting to me, such as all of the different telescopes, a CRAY computer, iron and steel making processes, and building structures. Also was a display on the Metro line 14, the new automated line in Paris. There was a video with animations and stuff showing how the system worked.
We were in the museum for quite a while, but since most of the group was disinterested they left early. Quite hungry, we went to the Oberkampf neighborhood for lunch. The place that Celia recommended was closed, so we went to ‘Charbon’ next door. Since the menu was all in French, and I was feeling like meat, I had the Charbon Burger, which turned out to be very delicious, even better than most at home. We ordered a milk shake for dessert, but it was really a smoothie; no ice cream was used, but it was still ok.
We weren’t tired yet, so Celia took us to a small exhibit of student work on rue Rivoli in a former warehouse. It was rather like the Arsenale exhibit in Venice, but unfortunately the student portion of the exhibit was removed. There was a cool, large, model on the floor with projectors focused on it that displayed graphical data about Paris on a topo map of the area.
There was also a small bookshop, but I found two really great books. One was large, panoramic picture of some of the Paris metro stations, and the other one was called ‘Hidden Paris’ ony the book was in French only. Celia said she had a copy, but since she can’t read French either she just bought it for the pictures.
We departed there and returned to the apartment and had dinner and did other inconsequential things for the rest of the night.
I woke up fairly late and did some minor adjustments on my project and took it to go get printed. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the place that people were looking for, so I had to go back to Accent and get the brochure. I eventually got it printed and came a little late to class, but that was ok because today was going to be spent going around the room and sharing our projects. In the meantime I glued them together to the post card backing, but apparently it was not Spray-Fix that Celia had but instead just regular fixative, which is used to coat pencil and charcoal drawings to keep them from smearing. Instead I had to use Sobo, which doesn’t laminate paper very well because of how thick it is and like Elmer’s, will warp the paper. With some weight and careful spreading I managed to make it work.
After class we decided to go out for a few drinks. The first bar we went to was so smoky and crowded that I couldn’t stand it and walked right back out the door, and everyone else followed shortly beheld. We walked a little further down Oberkampf and found another place, but they only had outdoor seating and it was rather chilly. We got drinks anyway, and hung around drinking with gloves and scarves on.
We began today by visiting one of the places I was most excited about; the catacombs. As the history goes, in the late 1700s Paris was having a large hygiene problem. The idea was made to move all of the bones from the cemeteries to the underground caves dug to quarry stone and other materials. Paris is covered with them, and they encountered problems when buildings would suddenly collapse and sink into the ground because the tunnels gave out below. Because of the risk to life, the authorities took great lengths to map and reinforce them. They began moving the bones, at night, in large carts in the 1780s and finished in a few years. After the battle of the Bastille and others, they moved the bones down there as well. The results are piles of bones, neatly stacked against the walls, of 5 to 6 million people. The place was a winding, creepy maze of skulls and bones poking out from everywhere. Signs identify where and went the bones were moved into the catacombs, and there are also several monuments and shrines. Tourists are allowed into several kilometers of catacombs, but there are hundreds if kilometers of unofficial ones, where deviants hide, and where young people have parties and other things.
When we exited, we were about a kilometer from where we started, so we walked to the nearest metro station to go get some lunch. Yes, even after looking and photographing bones for about 2 hours we were all starving. We made our way over to the Jewish district, where some of the guys recommended a great place for Falafel. The place was packed, and there was a line outside and a few guys taking orders. Amusingly enough, there was a guy across the street trying to get us to go to his place, but no one was going there because apparently the one that we were going to was the best in town, and other guy across the street was trying desperately to get a foothold into the market. The food was quite delicious and cheap, and we all inhaled it.
We walked across town for a while, noticing some medieval buildings, through the Louvre courtyard, to meet the rest of the group.
We entered the Ecole de Beaux Arts to see what I thought was a school of architecture, but all the public part had was a photograph exhibit that was uninteresting to me. We got to see the rest of the school, but the whole place was just rather boring. There were some things to see in the chapel that was turned into a gallery, but certainly not the 2 hours we spent there standing around.
I left to get some dinner and then venture back out to take some night pictures of the Montmartre hill, the Eiffel tower, and the Arc de Triumph. Montmartre some policemen asked what I was doing (as if it was not obvious), but I guess they were questioning lots of people because they later had a group of kids against a wall and were searching for something.
I got some great shots of the backside of the building and of the city itself since it was a very clear evening.
I took the metro over to the Arc de Triumph. But when I went to set up my tripod I found that one of the pins jammed in a leg, so it would not lock in place. I had to make do with my little tripod, but it has been steadily deteriorating with use (how can I complain, it was $3). I still managed to get a couple of good pictures of that and later the Eiffel Tower from the Trocadero, which is evidently the vantage point that everyone uses to photograph it because there are no obstructions between you, the river, and the tower except for other people.
Today we spent the day at Louis XIV’s palace, Versailles. It was easy to get there; just a hop on the C RER and in about a half hour we were there. The palace completely dominates the end of a wide boulevard in the middle of town. As I walked towards it, it seemed like I wasn’t getting any closer. The real reference point was the main gate, which led directly to the front door…but it was all torn up for restoration. Hurray, yet another monument that will be photographed with scaffolding and machinery in front of it. We stopped in the café for some coffee and treat since it was quite early in the morning and we didn’t have our heads on straight yet. We waited in line and went though pointless security manned by a bunch of bitchy people before we entered the palace proper. On the right was the chapel, but since it was roped off the crowd around the door prevented me from really getting a decent picture…like it was worth it anyway since all that could be seen was the doorway and distance altar.
We continued into the maze of gilded rooms, each one just like the next and packed with people. People rave about the palace, but I was not particularly impressed. More disappointing was Versailles signature room, the Hall of Mirrors, was under restoration and partially covered. Of course, it had to be under restoration to be completed in the spring. Not that it would have mattered anyway, since the room was packed full of kids and groups of Japanese tourists trying to hear their guide over the racket.
After escaping the palace we moved into the gardens which provided some more breathing space…especially considering they extend for several miles in all directions. We made our way to the lake and rented bicycles; the best way to see the gardens. We quickly made use of our new transportation and raced down the almost deserted paths and through the off-road trials. John rolled his bike off the edge of a berm, but he was unharmed. Unfortunately most of the fountains were turned off, several of the smaller park areas were closed, and the statues were all covered up for winter.
After returning the bikes and getting some lunch we went to the small garden within the garden to see the ‘Temple d’ Amour’ (Temple of Love) which was a small round classical building in the middle of some beautifully landscaped gardens. Fortunately this area and most of the rest of the gardens was completely deserted, as most people just took a look from up at the palace and left.
Versailles was a great place, but the next time I go I think I will just skip the palace and go straight to the gardens, perhaps early in the day before it get crowded, but I definitely want to come back when the place is more alive rather than hibernating.
Today we started early at one of the biggest things to see in Paris: the Louvre. We beat the crowds and waited a while for them to make us our museum cards, free cards that we just have to flash and can get into the place at any time, for as long as we want! It is spectacular since the place is impossible to see in one day, though we sure tried. We spent over 6 hours seeing everything from ancient Egyptian artifacts, French Renaissance paintings to sculpture and of course the biggies: the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo. The two major pieces were a disappointment, as I had expected (so was I really actually disappointed?) The Mona is always crowded, is lit poorly behind its inch of bulletproof glass, and is very tiny. The Venus was in a temporary room and was lit poorly.
I found the Egyptian area to be very cool, as well as the Mesopotamian sculptures and wall tiles were my favorite. I also enjoyed the indoor sculpture garden which had a few Bernini’s and Michelangelo’s.
Doug and I left around 4:30 because we were kind of falling into a daze from seeing so much. We did little of consequence that evening, he worked mostly on his project and I did some tweaking. I had forgotten to render a few views so I did that and added some of the images to my layout.
Today, being Sunday was completely useless for doing anything other than stuff around home. It was especially cold and grey (it rained last night) so it was not nice for doing anything outside, so I spent most of the day working on project from Rome. We started it there, but then kept postponing it for other things and then the break came up so it was left unfinished. I already had crits and my idea solidified, it was just a matter of sitting down with MicroStation and Photoshop and hammering it out, which I did.
By the evening I had all of my shit rendered to file and the templates laid out. We grabbed a bottle of wine and headed down the hall and hung out with people for the rest of the night.
We met early this morning to go to Vaux le Vicomte. We had our own coach bus, which was very nice since we have relied entirely on public transportation for the duration of the trip thus far. But it made sense that we had to, because the chateau was located far away from civilization. It was very cold, so I was pleased that I remembered to bring my gloves. We went into the house first, which was none too impressive except for the attic that we had to go through to get up to the cupola for a panoramic view of the grounds; that was quite cool. It was very foggy and cold, so we could not see very far.
After touring the house we went into the cafeteria and got a very mediocre and expensive lunch, but it was food. We then grouped into fours and rented golf carts to drive around on the property. We wanted to get our money’s worth, so we drove them very fast all over the place first, all the way to the end of the property where there is a statue of Hercules. We then took turns driving like delinquents; though the mud, puddles, and whipped shitties (doughnuts) in the gravel around the ponds, raced for a while, did stunts and other fun stuff. Surprisingly we didn’t hit each other, nor did we flip or damage the carts at all. Celia was not pleased with us, and one person did a little rolling when he missed the jump, but other than that it was perfectly tame, but tons of fun.
We returned the carts after an hour and spent some more time wandering about and feeding the fish before going back to Paris.
We met this morning to see Archeological Crypt, which was discovered when the area in front of Notre Dame was cleared in the 1960s. It dates back to before Paris was really a city, when there was just a settlement on the Isle de Cite (island of the city). In fact, the river was actually in a different place because the ramps to the port were in the middle of the land. The area was lowly lit and was great for taking photographs. Unfortunately, all of the text was in French so we just sort of figured out what was being said. It was not a very large space, so we were out of it in less than an hour.
We walked across the plaza to get into the Notre Dame. Unlike the rest of the churches we have visited, it was free to enter. Of course, this meant that it was very crowded and had beggars and pickpockets inside the church, so I had to be especially wary.
It is sparsely decorated inside, with simple compound capitals that rise to plain stone vaults. The most beautifully decorated areas were the windows, which were all stained glass depicting scenes that I presume are from the bible, and the large rose windows at the front, and on the sides of the transept. The apse was closed, but we were able to walk around the front in the aisle space, which was cool to be able to see the complex ribs of the vaults connecting the apse to the chapels.
I took my time to take some pictures, but it was hard to get it all in because of the size, and I didn’t feel like it was really worth taking pictures of the floor since it was filled with stupid looking tourists. I also noticed a few oddities with the building, such as that the columns are not all the same, nor are they perfectly aligned; the whole building is racked about 1 meter in one direction.
The outside was just as great as the inside, with all of the flying buttresses and intricate masonry such as the gargoyles and other motifs and carved figures. The park behind the church was very photogenic and filled with local Parisians and not tourists, which was a nice contrast to the front of the church. Rounding the last side of the building I noticed the scaffolding and other restoration work, so really only 3 quarters of the outside were photograph-worthy. I stopped for a nice big (and cheap, considering I was in the shadow of Notre Dame) crepe.
After meeting back with the group we went down the street though some government building to get to Saint Chapelle. We had to go through security, which was irritating because there were a bunch of assholes that pushed their way into our group, so we were assholes back and blocked them in, but the guards let them past. Evidently they weren’t tourists, because we didn’t see them in the chapel. The Chapelle church was built in the 13th century but it is a masterpiece of engineering for its time, because it has the highest glass-to-masonry ratio of any church of its kind. The entire building is covered in large stained glass murals, and is yet built of stone. It has some buttressing, but not much. What I believe the trick was is that it has a very light vault, probably of brick rather than stone and a wood roof which lightens the downward load. Anyway, it was very bright inside even though it was partly cloudy outside. It was not filled with too many tourists which made it nice for taking pictures and lingering for a while.
We departed company then, various people went shopping and such but I went up to the Montmartre area. The Montmartre is a hill with two churches on top, one being a beautiful, new, multi-domed Sacre Coeur (Sacred Heart). The hill is accessed by way of a funiculare, a tram that is built into the hill at an angle, or a very steep stair. I had looked it up the pervious day (in class actually) and deduced that the stairway was the same one that was in a photograph at The City Market that I looked at every time I was there. It showed a very steep stair with trees in the sides and lamp posts lit up at night (in the winter too as I recalled). There was no question that it was the right stairway, it was just a matter of finding the right place that carefully frames out the funiculare with the very modern stations. After thoroughly photographing the stair I went into the church, which was in the middle of a service but I still walked around. There were large no photography signs on the door, so I only took a few discreet pictures. I walked around the building which has a very complex and beautiful exterior and then into the town part. This was a section of Paris that has not been changed by the modifications by Haussmann and others in the 1700s and 1800s to ‘beautify’ Paris because it was built on the steep hill. The new avenues simply were routed around it and it was left as it is. The area is well saturated with tourists, so all of the businesses cater to them. There was another church, however, which was completely deserted. It was very plain and small, but it did have some great stained glass windows, and the sun was at a great angle so it cast the light into the church for some pictures. The building, however, had some serious problems. The vaults must have been pressing down and outward, because all of the columns curve outward and the whole building is twisted strangely out of plumb. Also, it is clear that part of the vaults failed because it was repaired slightly differently than it was constructed.
After dinner Doug and Christine and I met Kyle and Alyssa at the Pompidou center. We started in the book store, which had an extensive selection of architecture books, but no good prints unfortunately. It also had a €1500 book, for some reason a 500 page large format color book cost that much, not sure why. It was just a bunch of pictures of famous people in seductive poses, a lot of disgusting Courtney Love, so suffice to say I was not enticed to buy it at all. What I did like was the complete construction documents of the Eiffel tower and its construction history, but it was €100 so I didn’t get it.
Downstairs was the temporary exhibition space which was a multimedia conglomerate of various things like photography and animations, as well as a video game of one of Alvar Alto’s buildings based on the Doom shell, but no weapons were used.
The Pompidou center was cool, but in rather bad shape because it was very dirty and had some off-color inhabitants, including several bums sleeping around the air handling units which really took away from its charm.
Today was not exciting at all, since I spent most of the morning working on my project, which was supposed to be partially done for class; however, once we got to class we found that it was not required. We had some mapping assigned as well, but I had not started that yet. Sarah and Rachel had it completely finished; thinking that it was due, but of course it was not. Essentially all we had to do was think about our independent study project, which I have already pretty much worked out in my head. I have been riding the metro for a few days now and there is some to be left to the imagination. I intend to re-design one of the stations and perhaps expand it to an overall analysis of the system for an urban planning independent study or something to gain and extra 3 credits to get my certificate.
After class I hung about at home. I installed BitLord again and began downloading the other Family Guy seasons since we have watched the first 3 to death. I also got the pictures from Barcelona and Switzerland and picked out a few of the good ones to be tweaked and added to my money shots collection.
