Napoleon's Tomb and the Veteran's Hospital

We visited the Église du Dôme to pay a visit to Napoleon, who is buried in what is most assuredly the most elaborate tomb built for a twice exiled head of state.  The church is also home to Napoleon's brothers and great French military leaders such as Ferdinand Foch (WWI hero) and Turenne (general under Louis XIV), but Napoleon takes center stage.  His sarcophagus is actually six separate sarcophagi that fit within each other like a Russian doll, and the result is a massive monument.  The pictures don't give a good sense of the scale since people aren't allowed to get close.

Outside the Église du Dôme

Here lies Napoleon

On the Napoleonic Code: "My only code, by its simplicity, has done more good for France than all the laws that preceded me."  He never claimed to be modest.

The church is part of the huge Les Invalides complex, originally built as a hospital for recent veterans.  During the French Revolution, a mob stormed the hospital to wrest its inventory of 30,000 muskets before taking on the Bastille.  Today it houses the Musée de l'Armée, France's military museum.  Except for a quick jaunt through the medieval arms and armor section, we spent all of our time in the World Wars section.  It was extremely well done, even with the somewhat humorous attempts to aggrandize the French contribution to the Allied victory in WWII.  I think this museum often gets overlooked by visitors who are only spending a short amount of time in Paris, but those with an interest in military history will not be disappointed.

More pictures in the full post.

Shopping Arcades and Operas

Paris owes much of its current design and look to Baron Haussman, a French urban planner with a German name.  Napoleon III tasked him, the prefect of Paris, with modernizing the city in 1852.  Ten years later, over half of Paris' buildings had been torn down, its twisting streets replaced with wide boulevards (just in time for the Germans to march in) and its sewage was flowing underground instead of around people's feet.  I learned this while watching a TV show of Paris, and it piqued my interest in the city's urban planning (why?  because I'm a nerd), so when I saw there was a tour on the "Making of Modern Paris" I jumped on it.

The tour was supposed to follow late 18th and early 19th century developments through the Haussmannization of Paris.  We started at the Palais-Royal, originally the palace of Cardinal Richelieu and then passed down through the Royal line.  In 1785, Louis Philippe II inherited the building, and decided to convert portions of the structure into essentially Paris' first mall to increase his cash flow.  Stores still fill the space today.

The gardens in the Palais-Royal

The Pompidou Centre is Still the Ugliest Building in Paris

When the Pompidou Centre opened in 1977, it created a stir for its... uh, creative architecture.  Built in the high-tech style, the building's guts - elevators, pipes, steel frame, etc. - are on the outside, clashing violently with the surrounding Gothic and Renaissance buildings.  It houses a modern art museum and a library, and fans of the building says that the design allows for open and unencumbered exhibition space.  They also say that as a piece of art, it's supposed to challenge our sensibilities.  I don't care what the spin is - the Pompidou Centre is, just as it was when it opened 33 years ago, the ugliest building in Paris.

Obviously not a fan

Blends well with surroundings

Stained Glass

Church fatigue is a common ailment when spending any significant amount of time in Europe.  After the tenth or so church, they begin to blend together, and it takes something extraordinary to impress the jaded traveler.  This was the boat we were in when we visited Sainte-Chapelle two days ago.  We were actually supposed to go on a tour of the more famous Notre-Dame Cathedral, but we arrived late and decided to head to this smaller chapel instead.  It was completed in 1248 for King Louis the IX, who wanted to build a reliquary to house the Crown of Thorns and a fragment of the True Cross that he had purchased from the Byzantine emperor.  The King actually paid three times more for these relics than for the construction of the chapel.

We entered through the lower chapel, which was used by the royal staff and is quaint but not spectacular.  When we climbed the stairs and entered the upper chapel, we were both blown away, even though restoration work obscured part of the view.  Over 6,000 square feet of stained glass, mostly over 700 years old, wrap nearly completely around the structure.  We haven't seen anything like it, and of all the pictures we've taken on this trip that don't do the subject matter justice, the ones we took that day do the least amount of justice.  If you go to Paris, don't stop at Notre-Dame; make sure you make the five minute walk down the Ile-de-la-Cite to Sainte-Chapelle.

The understated lower chapel, leading to the...

... incredible upper chapel

More pictures in the full post.

The French Don't Have French's Mustard

I try to embrace, or at least sample, the local food culture as much as I can.  I think eating guinea pig, sheep testicle and salted animal fat soup on this trip attest to that.  However, there are times when I need yellow mustard on my sandwiches, and that time is most lunches.  Over here, though, they call yellow mustard 'American mustard' and the grocery stores don't carry it.  Apparently, there is nothing French about French's mustard, a fact that the company wanted to make abundantly clear in 2003 when they feared a boycott of their products.

Where do you go in a foreign city to get that food product from home you are craving?  If you're lucky, an American specialty food store.  We found one in Paris called The Real McCoy, which sells American staples such as Double Stuff Oreos, Aunt Jemima pancake mix, Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper and, yes, French's Yellow Mustard.  The prices are steep (€9 for Double Stuff Oreos!), but the American expat community here must really appreciate them, because they have two locations within a block of each other.

Almost all the processed American foodstuffs you'd ever want, plus the processed Australian/New Zealand foodstuffs (Marmite and Vegemite) you'd never want

The Real McCoy - Epicerie Americaine

One Month in Paris

It can be difficult to resist the temptation to see as much as you can when you're traveling.  There is so much to see, and you feel like you're cheating yourself if you don't see it all.  However, it often pays to slow down and experience a place instead of seeing the sights.  Although Magge and I had felt that we were doing a good job of mixing the two approaches, we wanted to pick a city where we could plant roots for a while and lean more towards experiencing.

Paris seemed the ideal place for this, so we rented an apartment for a month.  For roughly the same price as getting two dorm beds in a hostel (and much cheaper than getting a private room in a hostel), we were able to rent a small room in a great neighborhood.  We're staying in a quiet residential area of Montmartre, away from the waves of tourists that pack the Sacre Coeur Basilica and Place du Tertre.  It's a tree lined neighborhood that reminds us a lot of the West Village area where we lived in NYC, except without the 4am cross dressers.

So what are we going to do for a month?  We'll still take in the sights, of course, but we'll also to do things Parisians do: shop at local food markets, hang out in cafes, eat lunch in the park, hopefully get to know our local baker and butcher.  Maybe we'll even participate in a strike.  We won't be working, but the French don't do much of that anyway.

Our art deco apartment building below.

More apartment and neighborhood pictures in the full post.

Italy Wrap-Up

Facts and Figures

Length of Stay: 19 Days

Miles Traveled to Enter: 300 by plane from Dubrovnik

Miles Traveled: 900 by train + 300 bus = 1,200 total (38,690 since landing in Quito)

Places Visited: Rome, Florence, Siena, San Gimignano, Pisa, Cinque Terre, Pompeii, Parma, Roccabianca, Venice

Trains Taken: 6
Tour Buses Taken: 2

Times We Were the Only Non-Italians at a Polka Festival: 2

Rankings in the full post.

A Couple Quiet Days in the Italian Countryside

On the suggestion of our friend Elizabeth (aka E-Beth), who had spent a month in Europe with her boyfriend Miles last Spring, we decided to spend a few days at a bed and breakfast outside Parma after we said goodbye to the Bells in Rome.  Run down from constantly being on the move, I developed a nasty head cold, so a few days in the quiet countryside sounded perfect to me.   Dalla Nonna Maria ended up being just what the doctor ordered. Jeff and I spent our first two days at the bed and breakfast just taking it easy. We only left the B&B to take some short strolls around the area and to get dinner.

Pictures from Venice

There isn't much to write about our time in Venice.  We didn't visit any museums, only stepped into one church and ate simply.  What we did do, when we weren't ducking the persistent rain, was a lot of walking.  Venice is a great city for exploring, and it's pretty easy to escape the crowds (and the crowds can be very bad in spots, like the Piazza San Marco) just by taking a random turn onto a narrow alley.  Since we didn't actually do that much, I'll just share some pictures.

Rome II

Our second stint in Rome was packed with tours.  This city gets mixed reviews from travelers, with many giving it poor marks because it's too dirty, too busy, or lacks the charm of many of Italy's smaller cities.  However, it may be my favorite Italian city, and the tours we did gave us a great a varied experience during our time there.  While many guidebooks say you only need to spend three or four days in Rome, Magge and I left feeling like we had just scratched the surface.

A Day in Kiersten's Italy Journal: Pompeii

I've already posted an entry from my youngest brother's Italy journal.  Here is a day from my sister's journal covering our day trip to Pompeii.  The pictures in this post are a mix of those taken by Kiersten and Magge.

The first time I ever read, or even heard about, Pompeii was when I was in second grade off a standard reading test. I just thought it was a made up little story about some small village in Italy.  As I found out more and more, I realized this place is not fictional, it’s real!  Pompeii soon made it on my list of Places I Want to Visit When I’m Older.  When I said “Older”, I was referring to when I was an adult, not a few years later. When I found out that I was actually going to Pompeii when visiting Magge and Jeffrey, I nearly wet myself.  I couldn’t wait to see this famous city.

Day Trips From Florence

As you all know, there is a great deal of logistical planning in our daily traveling lives.  While Jeff does the lion's share of the work (I'm generally busy conquering the world on my iPod - or so Jeff says), I do pitch in from time to time.  When we needed to plan our stay in Italy with the Bells, I decided I would look into the tour options available.  Though the Bells are far from difficult to please, I have to admit that I was quite nervous in trying to pick the right tours to fit everyone's tastes (I just wanted everyone to be happy!).  I struck gold when I found the Walkabout tours while planning our Florence leg of the trip.

One site we knew we wanted to visit during our time together was the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  I was worried, however, that making the two hour journey to Pisa just to see the tower might not be worth the hassle.  So I was pleased when I found the Best of Tuscany Tour, which included a stop in Pisa along with tours of Siena, San Gimignano, and lunch at a wine farm.  After reading all the glowing reviews on Tripadvisor.com, Jeff and I agreed that it would be a good choice.  We were thrilled we had found such a great way to fit in Pisa.  The company had another tour of Cinque Terre that had received rave reviews as well that I really wanted to also book.  Sadly, Jeff vetoed that tour because he had read that Cinque Terre was unpleasantly crowded in August.

Florence with the Family

When I was sixteen, I went on a whirlwind tour through Europe with a group from my high school.  We visited eight cities in five countries over seventeen days.  Of those cities, Florence was the least memorable.  (I think) we were there for two days, but all I remember was fighting through crowds to see Michelangelo's David and hopping the fence with my track team and coach to practice on a private local track.  For whatever reasons, the city just didn't stick in my mind.  Regardless, with my family meeting us in Italy, I was giving Florence a chance to prove my teenage sensibilities wrong.

A Day in Liam's Italy Journal: Rome

We have just capped ten days with my family in Rome and Florence.  My two youngest siblings are keeping journals to document their first trip in Europe.  Here is our first day in Rome as described in my nine year old brother's journal.  It follows the day that the family was supposed to leave for Rome, but their flight was canceled out of Charlotte and they had to spend a night in the Queen City.  I have edited it for spelling, but they are completely his own words.  All pictures were taken by him on his Nintendo DSi, unless stated otherwise.

Wednesday, July 25, 2010 - Fly in the Sky
In the second day in the airport we did the exact same thing as yesterday, except we rode the plane! The plane was humongous! There were about 45 rows! There was a movie/T.V. player but it cost money, though. I slept, read, ate and played DS the whole way. It was soooooooooo long! But we got there!

In Italy
Wow, in a whole different country. During the car ride, the driver was really nice. The drive was like a tour. I saw pyramids, bridges, lakes. Our REAL hotel was really nice. But it was exactly like our other hotel EXCEPT it had 3 big beds, a BIGGER T.V., and a great view. And a better thing than all those things, Jeffrey and Magge!!!!!!