Sunday Funday!

6/2/2013

I went to the Museum Rodin today. Rodin was a famous sculpture and particularly known for his pensive (Thinking) sculptures. Some of his works were extremely large, while others were very small. It was a pretty small museum so we saw his work rather quickly and then strolled through the museum gardens. Every garden continues to amaze me. Historically, one of the kings (I can’t remember which one) thought he was of course the most powerful being (Like he literally put himself above god even!)  and so he decided to show his power by “controlling” nature too. This “control of nature” has since been a common practice of the French and is why so many of the bushes are cut into certain shapes and the trees and are placed and cut in certain ways. They planted the majority of their gardens in symmetry also. While I don’t agree, that the king was more important than god, I must give him credit for mastering the skill of designing beautiful gardens. In particular, I love how colorful the gardens are. The green from the trees and the pinks and purples from the flowers are so vibrant and play off each other so well also. Magdalena, Sam, and I sat and took in the beautiful gardens and the sun by having a café and tea in the gardens.

Across the street from the Rodin Museum was Les Invalides, which we went to next. The exterior of the building was very grand with beautiful details and a large gold dome. Les Invalides was a former hospital/housing for veterans. After the war, the veterans had nowhere to go and so many were living in the streets which caused quite a lot of problems for Paris. For this reason, Napoleon decided to build this building in order to house the veterans. Now a days, it has become a museum focused on war and soldiers. It was very interesting to look and learn about the different battles that occurred and the life of the soldiers. There were many parts dedicated towards WWI and WWII. At one point, when Germany had control over France, Hitler had visited Les invalids and decorated it completely with Swastikas. Hitler enjoyed the Invalides so much because in the Invalides is the Tomb of Napoleon. This tomb is insanely large. Its bigger than a hummer truck and can fit probably 60 people in there! It was in the center of the room and surrounded by other smaller tombs. After checking out this area, we were all pretty “Museumed” out and decided to get lunch and then head home and reposer (relax)!