Day 7 / Salvador Dalí Museum and Montmartre district

Today, I went to visit the famous Montmartre district of Paris, famous for street artists and the Basilica of Sacre-Coeur, which is located on the crest of the hill.

Artists set up on the streets of Montmartre district.

Basilica of Sacre-Coeur on the top of the hill.

View from the top of the hill in front of Basilica of Sacre-Coeur.

As a fan of Salvador Dalí, I was excited to visit the The Espace Dalí, which is a permanent exhibition in France devoted to him and more particularly to his sculptures and engravings. The museum has around 300 original artworks.

Dalí is known for his long-legged animal pictures. My students will love these!

Dalís ink blot-style paintings were quite interesting.

My students love Dalí 's melting clocks! Here is a sculpture of one.

There was also some interesting reflective pieces. Here is a short video of this one.

 I learned so much about Dalí  that I never knew before. His ink blot paintings were new to me, and I really enjoyed the sculptures. The museum was too dark for me to capture one in a 3D scan, but I was able to get a lot of great photos of them.

Day 6 / Giverney Day Trip!

Today was another wonderful day! I took a train to Giverney, and visited Claude Monet's garden and the beautiful and quaint town he once knew so well.

The town of Giverney.

Claude Monet's home!

One of many flower pictures taken in Monet's garden.

 

Monet's bridge!

This garden was really undescribeable! So far, it may be the highlight of the trip. I really enjoyed spending the day in Monet's gardens, walking on his bridge, viewing the layers of plants and flowers while imagining him painting in this location. What a beautiful and inspiring place!
 

Day 5 / Flea Market, Notre Dame and meeting a teacher from Georgia! Grand finalé - Eiffel Tower in Lights.

Today, I started out early by going to the Catacombs again (second try), but it appeared to be several hours of waiting in line, and there are so many other things to see, I moved on to the Flea Market. 

Now, I've been to a lot of Flea Markets, but I've never seen an entire market full of really amazing trinkets. Each item seemed special and unique. There were metal and leather stamping supplies, jewelry, old paintings, and all kinds of French tableware. It would take an entire day to see everything. It's a good thing this market ended at noon!

 

Next stop - Notre Dame Cathedral!

 

Notre-Dame was among the first buildings in the world to use the flying buttresses, althought they were not in the original construction. They were added at a later date.  These flying buttesses are arched exterior supports for the building. 

A flying buttress, close-up.

 

Interior of Notre Dame Cathedral.

The famous stained glass Rose windows!

 

 

Notre Dame Cathedral from the back.

After posing for the above picture, I met Susan, a fellow teacher from Georgia! She asked me about my fellowship, and that's what started our conversation. She had some great advice about how she teaches about France and architecture. I'm looking forward to her emails once I get back home.

In Paris, there is always time for a grand finalé for the evening. I can't seem to get enough of the Eiffel Tower. Here's another pic of the tower over the Seine River!

Bonne Nuit! ("Good night!" in French)

Day 4 / Pantheon, Pompidou (part 2), Intro to The Louvre

Day 4 - Friday

Today I was up at 5 a.m., ready to visit the Catacombs. Once I made it there and saw the extremely long line that wrapped around the block, I made a swift change of plans. ...on to the Pantheon!

What an amazing masterpiece of neoclassical architecture, with Gothic decorations mixed in with a distinctly classical style!  This monument was changed into  a mausoleum to bury important and distinguished Frenchmen.  It was also fascinating to enter the crypt underneath the church that became the final resting place for Voltaire, Rousseau, Victor Hugo, Louis Braille, Marie Curie, and many other famous writers, poets and scientists.

The Pantheon in Paris, France

...of course, I had to snap a picture to show my students!

Looking up, while outside on the front area of the Pantheon. The design and architecture was magnificent!

The inside of the Pantheon. I was able to capture a 360º panorama to show my students! This creates a virtual image that can be spun, moved around and interacted with on the ipad or iphone.

Another photograph of the interior of the Pantheon.

A small replica of the Pantheon was inside of the Pantheon. I was able to make a video going around this piece to show my students the church. I would have made a 3D capture of the mini Pantheon, but the fence did not allow visitors to go all around the replica.

Inside the crypt. This is a sculpture of an Egyptian cat (not a real cat).

After visiting the Pantheon, I decided to visit The Louvre with the mission to capture/video/photograph most of the really famous pieces that I know are always crowded with visitors. I thought if I could go and see these pieces at night just before closing time, it might keep the crowds from interrupting the process of capturing each piece. This strategy worked! I was able to see all of the really famous pieces with minimal crowds! Later in my visit, I plan to see the rest of The Louvre.

 

Inside the large pyramid that serves as the main entrance to the Louvre, completed in 1989. It consists of 603 rhombus-shaped and 70 triangular glass segments and was designed by the architect the architect I. M. Pei. 

The Winged Victory of Samothrace (or the Nike of Samothrace) is prominently displayed at The Louvre. 

The Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci (1503-1517) was highly protected behind a bar and glass. Guards were also posted on either side. It looked small from such a distance, but was still quite spectacular to see in person!

The Lacemaker is a painting by the Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675). It, too, was much smaller in person than I imagined it would be! It is actually the smallest of Vermeer's paintings!

Visitors to The Louvre look at The Lacemaker by Vermeer.

A view looking outside from a window in The Louvre.

The Inverted Pyramid is a skylight in the shopping mall in front of the Louvre Museum. It looks like an upside-down and smaller version of the Louvre Pyramid.

...made it to closing time. I'm glad I planned to come back another day to visit The Louvre in more depth. There is so much to see, it will take many more hours to fully experience it. I'm really looking forward to the Egyptian collection!