Day 8: Carnavalet museum, Eiffel Tower, and La Defance

Yesterday was the last day of itinerary travel we had. We started off at the Carnavalet Museum, which is the museum for the city of Paris. I think my mom would have enjoyed this museum the most. The museum is within two connected mansions in Paris, both of which have beautiful paneled wall and a lot of furniture and art left to decorate the rooms. This museum is free, which is the other plus, and covers the history of the city from the Roman Gallo times all the way into the 20th century.

This bronze statue of Louis the 14th was one of the few to survive the revolution


Painting of the Pont Neuf bridge


Erin shows off this beautiful and little bed


Painting of Les Invalaides before all of the development went up around it


Fire at a hotel. It made us laugh because the fire looks quite a bit like the fire symbol we saw on the exit signs




This painting is of the Champs Elysees, you can see it in the left hand side of the painting. It ends at the gardens of the Tuileries


Some of the walls within the museum:














Ha! And they think our dogs are spoiled:


One of the original faces that adorn the Pont Neuf bridge




This room was just bizarre






Beautiful table


Painting of a monument being erected. I found the old construction techniques to be very interesting


pieces of a statue that was destroyed


Some of Marie Antoinette’s hair


A little ivory guillotine toy


This was a revolution era clock. It tells the time, date and month. Notice how there are only 10 months in the revolutionary calendar


The remains of an infant in the Roman Gallo exhibit


Roman glass, it is amazing that this has survived


After the museum we were free to do what ever we wanted. The Carnavalet museum is very close to the Pompidou, so it would make sense to see both on the same day. Since we had already explored this area we got on the metro and headed to the other side of the city.

We saw this on the way to the metro. A brabus smart car


Erin still hadn't gotten Eiffel Tower pictures so we made a quick stop there.





From there we headed to La Defance. This is where most of the modern buildings in Paris are houses. In the 1970s a very tall, ugly black rectangular building was erected in Paris. The outrage over this building was so much that it prevented any more from being built within old Paris. For the better anyways. Since the bedrock under the city is swiss cheese from quarrying, many areas can't support the structures anyways. The new construction moved out to La Defance, on the city's edge, where most of the new, high tech, offices now are. This is also where you can find the new arc, which is lined up perfectly with the Arc de Triomphe




This is a bunch of pipes put together. There were a number of large, cylinder shaped pieces in this area








Men in trees


Before coming over here we were told by our Professor of the things not to speak to the French about. Politics was on his list. However, the French have taken quite the interest to our Presidential race because of Barack Obama. When we went to the Opera House, the men who checked our bags asked if we were American. We said yes and they said: "Obama! Obama! Obama!". When our Professor went out to dinner with some Parisian friends they kept asking him about him too. The French are so amazed that we are having a black run for president, and that he actually has a shot.


When we returned from La Defance both Erin and I were feeling sick to our stomachs. From 2pm on we slept and threw up. Today we are just staying inside. It’s okay, we saw everything we wanted to see anyways. We did want to leave the city to see the little town of Chartres which has one of the most beautiful cathedrals in France, but resting is better. It’s just a shame that the only station we have in English is CNN, we’ve seen the news play through so many times already.

We come back home tomorrow and even though we’ve had a ot of fun, I’m more than ready to leave.