Reims and More Paris

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Today was... inspiring and disillusioning, touching and dull, and invigorating but so exhausting that I gimped my way back, hobbled and crippled. The best part was honestly leaving Paris, getting out early on the 8 bullet train only 45 minutes to the city of Reims (pronounced rance). Yes, I visited yet another cathedral, but this one was especially important because it served as the coronation spot for French kings, and, frankly, is just a beautiful place. You can stand gawking at the west portal facade forever. More just so impressed that people could actually build such a thing. A monumental achievement driven by sheer faith. But, in Reims, the absolute best moment was the least expected, and one I didn't even think I'd have time to see.

Reims was where WWII officially ended - papers were signed here between the Germans and Allies, detailing a complete German surrender. What was so moving about this sight was the fact that everything about the room has been perfectly preserved. I mean literally. Nothing has been moved. It's like the minute everyone leaved, the room was frozen in time. Same chairs, unmoved, the same table, and all of the same maps hung up on the walls. A single moment in time preserved, put down as history. And I think I enjoyed this so much because it was a nice book-end to the many, many WWII sites I've seen. From D-Day, to the Battle of the Bulge and Bastogne, to Berlin, and all throughout Germany, to those horribly sad but incredibly moving concentration camps, especially Auschwitz in Poland, this little room rounds it off. And it really made me think. You have this incredibly traumatic, devastating war, but it all ended so quietly. In this little room, in the early morning of May 7, 1945, with a few papers signed, and then all went their own way. Big things have small endings.

What else? I got back to Paris, and first dropped by Pere Lachaise Cemetery. Here I began to be disturbed. It just doesn't seem right to make a cemetery a tourist attraction. But I participated, so who am I to judge. This place houses basically just a lot of famous people, and I saw the graves of Oscar Wilde, Chopin, and Jim Morrison, and a few others. From here, I wandered around Montmartre, the old artistic and bohemian hub of Paris. But the true sightseeing seemed to start once I got to the Louvre later in the day.

I say this because, going to these big, famous museums, I honestly don't know what is more entertaining, the people or the art. This honestly is what goes on: you have a famous painting, people flock to it, mass around it, each person poses in front of it (usually striking such a horribly superficial pose), the picture snaps, they grab the camera, and see if they look okay. Do you see the irony? People don't actually look at the paintings!!! They look at themselves in front of paintings. It's comical, at the same time that it's deeply troubling. Do we know how to look at art anymore? It seems more like only a checklist of photos you have to take in front of certain paintings.

And (since I'm going off I might as well go all the way) this is why I feel so sad for Mona Lisa. Think about it. Day in and day out, she's stuck behind bulletproof glass, and all day people snap one photo after another. How would you like that? Had some interesting thoughts about this, especially because of her famous smile. In such a setting, who would be smiling? It more seems, in this modern world, she must really be sad. It's not a smile, more like a frown, a grimace, a help me before I flip out grin. Bob Dylan said it best: "Mona Lisa must've had the highway blues, you can tell by the way she smiles." Her fame has killed her. And I've decided that's why I'm just bored with this entire trip. After last summer, going through Egypt, and then being to places like Cambodia, Europe is just, quite frankly, boring, dull, blase. It's so much in the beaten path that it's been beaten to death. Tourism just ruins certain spots. I need to go to Antarctica or something. Okay, my rant's over - sorry.

Tomorrow I get prodded around again, this time down at Versailles, before ending my last day in France.

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Photos

Reims Cathedral
For a Medieval church, rare to see symmetrical towers. Usually one's higher than the other.

Joan of Arc
Right in front of cathedral. She led the French king here to be crowned.

Coronation of Mary
Cathedral dedicated to Mary, Our Lady (Notre-Dame). People think Notre-Dame is only in Paris. But that's Notre-Dame in Paris. This is Notre-Dame in Reims. Our Lady of Reims.

Welcoming Angels
Great statues. Right by the door.

Main Entrance
Mary right in the middle. Great Latin inscription along the lintel.

Another Nave Shot
How many of these have I taken? Sorry, here's another.

Looking Up
Massive, massive place.

Side-View
Can see flying buttresses, what made the glass windows possible.

Mars Gate
Reims was a Roman town, and this was one entrance. Reims comes from Remus, one of the mythical founders of Rome.

Signing Room
WWII ended right here. Nothing has changed since the morning of May 7. Even the slant of the chairs.

Maps on Wall
Also haven't changed. Surprised Eisenhower wasn't here. Hadn't heard of most of the people who signed that day.

Another View
The 3 Germans sat right there. Hitler had already killed himself, and the senior office was Jodl. He sat in the middle chair.

Signing Building
A nondescript building that housed the ending to such a horrible war. Fittingly, now along Roosevelt Street.

Oscar Wilde's Grave
The great Irish playwright. In Pere Lachaise.

Chopin's Grave
I liked his the best.

Jim Morrison's Grave
Probably the most popular in the place. This is the end, truly.

Sacre-Coeur
Top of Montmartre. Not really that old, this place. Only like 100 years. Scammers hang out here, and basically people up to no good.

Van Gogh's Old Apartment
Coming down from Montmartre.

Alexander the Great
In Louvre. I love Alexander statues. He was the first great traveler. Going to the ends of the known world.

Stairway up to Winged Victory
Inside joke.

Giotto Close-Up
I love Giotto. His reactions. Best are in Padua, in Italy. The Arena Chapel changed my life.

Long Hall in Louvre
You could drop dead in the Louvre, of sheer exhaustion. The place just never ends.

Mona Lisa's Got Nothing On Her
A Da Vinci, and I think better than Mona. What a great look. She's not as sad as Mona Lisa.

Mona Lisa Madness
Are people taking pictures of the painting, or of themselves in front of the painting?

Hobbling Out of Louvre
The great glass pyramid, the main entrance.