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Published: July 29th 2009
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Construction work
"How are we going to get out today?" Today was the first day that we hadn’t planned within an inch of its life so we thought we would have a sleep in and later a wander around our own little area. The Paris City Council had other plans though and they started with their jack hammers under our lounge room windows at 8 am (nothing starts early in Paris). The double glazed windows and foot thick walls kept out a lot of the noise but the vibration in our apartment was interesting to say the least. (Best laid plans of mice & men).
Allan pulled out the city sites map, metro map and the museum passes and off we went. First we went to the metro station about 200metres from our apartment (In Paris you are never more than 500 metres from any metro) and bought a 1 day pass. The metro is interesting because Gypsy’s travel begging for money, one woman climbed on with her child and started yelling then walked to every passenger with her hand out. We travelled to the Pantheon which is now a tomb for significant French people such as the Currie’s, Victor Hugo and many partisans from the French Revolution (Martyrs even).
Pantheon
A church taken over by the Republic The Pantheon is also home to Focault’s pendulum which was used to show the earth rotated and as an extension the earth is NOT the centre of the universe. The Catholic Church at the Spanish Inquisition burned Giordano Bruno at the stake for his view in 1600 the earth moved and then persecuted Galileo for the same view in 1633, only apologising in 1992. There is a 28 kg pendulum suspended from the 67 metre high dome that traces a very slow clockwise path. The same thing happens in the anti-clockwise direction in the southern hemisphere and this difference is called the coriolios effect, which is why we have to have clockwise and anti-clockwise wind turbines (not really but just always tell investment bankers this story because the last group I gave advice to believed it without any thought).
We headed to Jardin du Tulieries for a sit in the park, lunch and a visit to the Musee de l’Orangerie which houses Monet’s paintings of the lilies. This is a purpose built pavilion to house these enormous paintings and are made up of two elliptical rooms about 25 metres long and 12 metres wide. Words and pictures won’t
Focault's pendulum
67m below the Pantheon dome give the right impressions, except to say if someone asks me are these paintings worth all the attention they get, my answer is “yes”.
Off on the metro again to the Champs Elysees, this time we were entertained by two gypsies one with a piano accordion & the other a violin, they played a lively tune then the violinist did the same as the women with his hand out as the other one played on.
We checked out all the shops as we walked up the Avenue towards the Arc de Triomphe. Then we tackled the monument, climbing 284 steps (but who was counting). Fantastic view and really worth the climb. This is one of the most under-rated attractions of Paris with great perspectives of all the other monuments and down on one of the busiest roundabouts in the world. Here’s something to think about, busiest roundabout in the world, roughly four lanes, no lane markings, at peak hour a bus can approach it at about 40 km/h with no queuing and be through the other side in less than one minute (actually probably less than 30 seconds) and not a traffic light in sight - why does
Brisbane need four sets of traffic lights to manage the roundabout to the Brisbane airport?
There were a few little interludes along the way like the Petit Palais with some exquisite 18th century furniture and a beautiful and peaceful central garden in the middle of Paris.
What was meant to be an easy day has been busy again so hopefully we can get going again for another excursion to the champagne region tomorrow.
Au revoir
Al and Tess
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Maria lawson
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French Roundabouts
Did Michael make comment about the round about yet?