Europe 2011: Part 4, Musée du Louvre

Next stop in Paris was visiting the Louvre.... but on the way I needed to take care of some stuff at the Apple Store. Yes, it's true... I can actually locate one anywhere I travel! I think this time I mostly just bought a battery charger. 

Now, I must say using these rechargeables in the the emergency battery charger I got off of Amazon works amazingly. Instead of getting 30% extra charge, I was finding myself reaching 60% or greater. 

Inside the Apple Store

Charging my phone outside of the Apple store

Anyhow, enough about batteries! On to the fun stuff...

They had this really impressive model of what the Louvre looked like during the medieval period 

Foundations for the Medieval Louvre

Notice the scale compared to people... it must have really been huge!

And of course, the Winged Victory of Samothrace

Stairs leading up to Winged Victory... lower level has sculptures, upper paintings

This time I paid special attention to the Regency/Empire paintings and I have a selection of them for you now...

I think this picture is in every book about men's fashion from the regency/empire period!

I love this painting... I may get a print of it for my home!

Again, Coronation of the Empress by Jacques-Louis David. Notice how large it is compared to the people. There is another copy of this painting at Versailles. I think this one here is the original.

This year I'm a huge fan of sheer materials... look at the sleeves!

I believe this is the last painting of the Empress Josephine before she passed away

Look at the exquisite detail of the material!

I'm also really impressed at this neckline's construction... whoever came up with that had to be a genius, because it doesn't look easy for it to work right.

Note the fashion of hand placements... there is a famous painting of Napoleon much like this

Nice regency style with cravat, etc.

I love the sheer again here... the construction of this is dress is so simple and delightfully elegant

This is a great musical portrait

I believe this is the dauphin, King Louis-Phillipe's son.

This man's outfit is intense... the amount of cravat and shirt frills is impressive!

I think this was for Napoleon III, but could be mistaken... what's interesting is that instead of carving the designs, they painted them in apparent 3 dimensions.

The Louvre Pyramid as seen from inside the museum

The usual republican piece... :P

I love this staircase! I will have a better view of it in the next post, which will have panoramic views of the Louvre

They have a little cafe up here... isn't this lovely?

Throne chair... I think for a temple, but I do not exactly remember

I love how they hid the outlets!

The fountains are surrounded by a bench and are a lovely place to sit and have conversations (particularly if you had someone to talk to)

And what it all looks like at night:

 Unfortunately, I didn't have time to go back again and reshoot some things I saw two years ago, but I plan to return in the near future! My next blog post will have panoramic shots of the Louvre that you can navigate on your computer. Stay tuned!

Europe 2011: Part 3 Driving in France and Politics!

In case you're wondering: Part 2 was the wedding post. :)

In this latest installment of my travel adventures, we follow my path from visiting with my family to going to the political conference 'Universités de rentrée' for Debout La République. Finally we end up in Paris! :)

I rented a really nice mini cooper, with the disadvantage that I didn't really drive stick... so I learned how to work the car in the middle of Lille, which isn't a small city!

I finally left the car in Lille for a couple minutes so I could buy a bluetooth headset at the FNAC. My phone got messed up at my grandmother's and I figured that even if the unit couldn't produce sound, it would likely still work with a bluetooth headset if it was only the DAC on the motherboard that was bad. Thankfully, I was right!

My sister took this picture of me driving in my mother's home town in France :)

To get to the political conference, I had to wake up extremely early and sneak my way out of my grandmother's home, without waking up anyone! This is the sunrise on the highway to Paris.

My attempted route... from Nord-Pas de Calais to Dourdan in Ile-de-France, and finally arriving in Paris.... it was supposed to take about 3.5 hrs to get to destination 'B' and then about an hour or so to get to 'C'... the reality is I probably took at least 4 hours to get to Dourdan and then at least 2-3 to get to Paris, because I misread the signs and ended up in horrible traffic jams caused by 5-7 car pileups!

Oh... I nearly forgot... the speed limit on French highways is 130kph... aka 80mph! Pretty epic!

Finally made it, they're introducing our main candidate right here

Waving the flags, waiting for Dupont-Aignan to arrive!

And he's here!

Let's zoom in!

And a bit more!

Everyone had their cameras out and people were making tons of noise!

After welcoming Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, we all sat down and he gave an epic speech, tearing in to the current French political establishment and European Union policies that hurt everyone in France and Europe. It was a very good speech and well delivered!

Afterward, Dupont-Aignan (who happens to also be running for French President) was mobbed by reporters in the lobby

Sadly there wasn't really time this year to take a real picture at the event, so I took a self-pic in the parking lot before leaving. Everyone was parked everywhere... this place really needs to add a garage or something for when this conference occurs!

And after sitting in bumper traffic for 2-3 hours, I found a restroom and the car rental agency! This is me before returning the vehicle. I took the wrong highway direction somehow, had to turn around, and then got stuck on the peripherique and then couldn't fin the entrance to the right garage at the station! It was a mess!

[Update] Here is the route I actually drove from Dourdan back to Paris... notice the complete detour I took to the south-east for no obvious reason!

The mini also has a really great storage area... I was able to fit everything nicely :)

The inside of the vehicle was cozy and comfortable

Gare de Lyon from the outside... the right corner is the Mercure hotel (which I did NOT stay in, lol!)

Going to One Wedding Brings on Another

In Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, John Thorpe attempts to sneak his way into marrying Catherine Morland and a snippet of the conversation goes as follows:

[John Thorpe] "A famous good thing this marrying scheme, upon my soul! A clever fancy of Morland's and Belle's. What do you think of it, Miss Morland? I say it is no bad notion."
[Miss Morland] "I am sure I think it a very good one."
[John Thorpe] "Do you? --that's honest, by heavens! I am glad you are no enemy to matrimony, however. Did you ever hear the old song 'Going to One Wedding Brings on Another?'

During the course of this last month I have had the honor of being invited to two weddings, which while they were no more connected one to the other than John Thorpe's fantasies were to reality... did at least in my life happen to occur one after the other. I was therefore reminded of the reference. :)


As a result, I send my official congratulations to my cousin, Ismail and his lovely bride Capucine, whose wedding I was able to attend during my Europe trip. My cousins are all rather cool people and I was really happy to be there for the special day. Living on different continents means we only all see each other sporadically, but thankfully my family and I have been able to visit periodically since I was an infant. This wedding was also really good for bringing most of the French family together in one place, which hasn't happened in a long time. I also met much of my uncle's family for the first time, and they appear to be a good and enjoyable group of people!

French civil wedding

My sister and I with Capucine... brilliantly my sister and I both wore seersucker!

The first dance at evening reception :)

Secondly, this last Saturday I was at the wedding of a wonderful friend of mine, Peter and his delightful bride Erin. I've been friends with Peter and his family for some time now, and they are really amazing, solid people. If everyone were more like them, the world would be a better place! :) Again, blessings and congratulations on the happy couple! 

Lovely Episcopal service in Virginia

The conclusion to their first dance :)

I should throw in that Peter's brother Kevin is now in the National Philharmonic Orchestra's choir... and I went to see his first performance with the orchestra, in which he sang Ode to Joy in Beethoven's 9th symphony! Yet another great reason to go listen to good music!

At Strathmore with Hannah, Kevin, and Eric!

One last passing note... not only were both weddings very fun and enjoyable--with regard to style, I thought they were really well done... both brides picked dresses that were flattering and lovely! It really does give me hope when I see good taste in dress. The future may not be completely lost! lol :)

Jane Austen Spoofs!

I generally am a purist and don't like twisted up versions of the Austen stories... however, some of these are classic or infamous in their own right, or simply worth a laugh. As a result I am sharing them with you now for my more daring readers. Some of them may be slightly offensive and for that I do apologize in advance. I obviously didn't design them myself, or else they would have been a bit different, undoubtedly.

Enjoy!

Jane Austen Fight Club (viral video):

That Mitchell And Webb Look: Posh Dancing (wherein, Darcy shows of his sweet moves)
(note: there is one offensive word in the middle, fyi)



I just ran into this series: 'Jane 08'... which parodies the films in the style of an American political advertisement to promote a fan-fiction novel. (The best part has to be the one about the environment)


But wait... there's more! 'Truth'...

And it continues! 'Leadership'...

This last one counts as explosive... and advertises beer... be ready for gratuitous gunfighting...

Europe 2011: Part 1

This is going to be an ongoing series of pictures, anecdotes, and stories from my recent vacation in Europe. I visited family, friends, places, and participated in many fun and exciting events during my time. I hope you enjoy the ride! :)

Riding to airport in shuttle

Flying to Chicago O'Hare from Reagan National

View out the window prior to take off at DCA

Panorama while in the air

Chicago O'Hare inside and outside the terminal

Me again, now on the flight from Chicago to Brussels

We even had a bit a of food... and the obligatory apple juice :)

The movies and tv were about as bad as usual, but we made it to our destination nonetheless!

And then it was on to the train!

And I make an appearance on the train

Those items on the wall are actually mirrors... some girls got on and used them to do their makeup, lol

Riding through the city...

...and the countryside

And I reached my family in France...! :) (Can you tell I look tired? I pulled an all-nighter before getting on the flight to Chicago, so I was up for something like 2-3 days straight)

New blog design coming soon!

Malfunctioning ad window in London Underground Escalator

Dear readers:

I am getting ready to change the look of this blog so that it is cleaner and better organized... please pardon the dust as I work on changes. I'll let you all know in a future post when I've finished with the work. In the meantime, you may notice random changes to the design occur as I change things.

On the roof of Printemps in Paris

Additionally, I just got home from Europe last night... so once I've sorted through the pictures and had time to settle in a bit, I will begin writing about my trip! :)

--Justin

Travel!

Some of you may be wondering why I haven't written anything lately... The answer is simple. I'm currently traveling in Europe and have been really busy and subsequently really tired, such that I haven't really done much in the way of writing.

However, I'm doing and seeing so many interesting and fun things that you can be certain that there will be more posts in the near future!