Paris

Paris

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February 16th 2007

Published: February 19th 2007

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Here are some photos from a week I spent sightseeing in Paris.... Read Full Entry

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Photos: 51, Displayed: 21

P22

Parisians sunbathing in Jardin du Luxembourg. In January.

P23

Courtyard of the 17th century Hotel des Invalides, which was a former military hospital, with the ornate gilded dome in the background.

P24

Me in line to get tickets to go visit Napoleon, and reading the book all these handy facts came from!

P25

Napoleon's a little over-the-top final resting place. He's in there, inside a cocoon of five successive coffins. "One of tin, one of mahogany, two of lead and one of ebony, set inside a majestic single carved block of Finnish red porphyry from." says the brochure, typo and all.

P26

Quite the place to build to house a couple of dead guys.

P27

And they didn't skimp on the gold and marble for the altar.

P28

View from the crypt to the altar.

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Napoleon's personal effects. His hat and wee little coat.

P30

The great Parisian phallus. And a tower to his right. The tower was built in 1889 and was actually meant to be dismantled shortly after the close of the Universial Exhibition. Luckily they made the rather obvious choice to leave it be.

P31

Queuing at the base.

P32

Looking up its skirt!

P33

The Liberty Flame and the Eiffel Tower at sundown. It is a replica of the Statue of Liberty's flame, given to the French to honour the fighters of the French Resistance in WWII. It is now a unofficial memorial to Princess Diana as it directly above the underpass where she died in 1997.