Tuesday 28 June 2005
This is it - our last real day in Europe. Tomorrow there will be packing our bags, catching the train to CDG Airport and boarding a flight to Hong Kong. So how did we spend the day?
First thing we got up and onto the Metro to Invalides, a hospital for wounded soliders built 180 years ago. When it was first built there was 6,000 residents, now there are a dozen. We didn't go in but admired the facade and church dome which is covered in gold leaf. We walked around the district past all the government offices and had breakfast before going to the Rodin Museum and gardens.
Rodin's most reknown work is "The Thinker" which is displayed in the gardens, along with his other sculptures. The mansion that Rodin lived in has been converted to a Museum with many of his models for the sculptures, some smaller works, and some of his paintings. The museum also has paintings by Rembrandt and Van Gogh.
After the musuem we made that famous Paris rock pilgramage to Pere Lachaise Cemetery to the grave of Jim Morrison of The Doors. The grave was simple and did not have the graffitti I expected. (There is a guard standing by the grave.) The cemetery also has the graves of many other famous Paris residents like Oscar Wilde (whose tomb is covered in lipstick kisses), Frederic Chopin and Collette. We tried to find the grave of Edith Piaf but couldn't, but the same area has memorials to all the french residents killed by the Nazis. Some are graves of resistance partisans killed and others are for each of the Nazi concentration camps.
The day has been very hot so we headed back to the hotel afterwards. Tonight we are off on a dinner and dance cruise on the Seine.
Thursday we are in Hong Kong and Friday we are back home!
First thing we got up and onto the Metro to Invalides, a hospital for wounded soliders built 180 years ago. When it was first built there was 6,000 residents, now there are a dozen. We didn't go in but admired the facade and church dome which is covered in gold leaf. We walked around the district past all the government offices and had breakfast before going to the Rodin Museum and gardens.
Rodin's most reknown work is "The Thinker" which is displayed in the gardens, along with his other sculptures. The mansion that Rodin lived in has been converted to a Museum with many of his models for the sculptures, some smaller works, and some of his paintings. The museum also has paintings by Rembrandt and Van Gogh.
After the musuem we made that famous Paris rock pilgramage to Pere Lachaise Cemetery to the grave of Jim Morrison of The Doors. The grave was simple and did not have the graffitti I expected. (There is a guard standing by the grave.) The cemetery also has the graves of many other famous Paris residents like Oscar Wilde (whose tomb is covered in lipstick kisses), Frederic Chopin and Collette. We tried to find the grave of Edith Piaf but couldn't, but the same area has memorials to all the french residents killed by the Nazis. Some are graves of resistance partisans killed and others are for each of the Nazi concentration camps.
The day has been very hot so we headed back to the hotel afterwards. Tonight we are off on a dinner and dance cruise on the Seine.
Thursday we are in Hong Kong and Friday we are back home!
posted by Michael at
5:44 PM
1 Comments:
The cruise was very nice, past all the landmarks and included two bottles of wine and a five course meal. The band was good.
As a bonus I had escargot as a starter!
By
Michael, at 8:12 PM
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