Famous Graves, and Cliche Landmarks, Paris, France

The Paris Blogs... EXTREME TOURISM filler entry!

So... when we left we were still roaming around Montmartre and had just finished the visit to Espace Dali... next we had a brief stop for a coffee at one of the cafes near Place du Tertre, which is where I took this cute photo of their neat wall painting.

Then we began walking down the hill towards Montmartre Cemetery...

This random guy phasing through the wall was pretty cool... much more interesting than random graffiti.

Random shot while strolling through Montmartre... and finally we made it to the cemetery where my friend visited the grave of Vaslav Nijinsky a very famous Russian dancer, member of the Imperial Russian Ballet, witness to the Bloody Sunday massacre of St Petersburg, and schizophrenic.

I must confess this is one of the most beautiful gravestones I have ever seen...

Although this one has a certain sorrowful beauty to it too...
So having found the correct grave here, we started the trip towards Père Lachaise Cemetery to find the graves of Oscar Wilde (writer and poet) and Jim Morrison (musician and poet).

Passing by the Moulin Rouge during the day, which felt quite strange actually to see it so quiet, for contrast I include a picture of it at night...

Eventually we arrived at Père Lachaise Cemetery, and after quite a lot of walking, we found Jim Morrison's grave, it is tucked away behind several other plots, and is fenced off to prevent the public from causing any further damage to it.

His grave was quite simple really, but all around it people have written messages over the years, many peace signs and such are scattered around the immediate area, much as cemetery staff hate that.

This is Oscar Wilde's incredibly fancy tomb, which is now shielded from the kisses of his admirers since the chemicals in their lip sticks were actually eroding the stone masonry... keep that in mind people, you smear this stuff on your lips!

Aaaaand just to round this post out... here are your incredibly cliche landmarks!
Unfortunately for both, by the time I got to them conditions were not ideal and I was really unsteady on my leg, so both photos are quite bad actually... oh well its a perfect excuse to go back sometime soon and take some much nicer ones.

The Eiffel Tower did actually look somewhat pretty in the fog and hail, but there was no way I was bothering to climb up it in that weather.

And the Arc de Triomphe, I don't really know what I thought about this, it certainly is a big stone structure.... I personally think the Brandenburg Gate is prettier.

And just in case you feel studious about any of the topics in this super fast update, check the links below!

References:
Montmartre - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montmartre
Montmartre Cemetery - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cimetiere_de_Montmartre
Vaslav Nijinsky - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaslav_Nijinsky
Bloody Sunday in St Petersburg - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Sunday_(1905)
Moulin Rouge - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moulin_Rouge
Père Lachaise Cemetery - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pere_Lachaise_Cemetery
Jim Morrison - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Morrison
Oscar Wilde - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Wilde
Eiffel Tower - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiffel_Tower
Arc de Triomphe - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc_de_Triomphe


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Espace Dali, Paris, France

Part Three of the Paris Blog!

Espace Dali Montmartre
Address: 11 rue Poulbot, 75018, Paris
Nearest Metro: Anvers
Opening Daily: 10.00–18.00
Cost: Adults 11 euro, Children 6 euro, or free with the ParisPass card

After our visit to the Sacre Coueur we then took a very brief walk around the hill to Espace Dali, which is a fantastic collection of sculptures and paintings by master surrealist Salvador Dali.

So for a little history, in case you have been unfortunate enough to have never heard of Salvador Dali...
Born in the Catalonia region of Spain as Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, 1st Marqués de Dalí de Pubol, on the 11th of May 1904.  And known simply as Salvador Dali, this man was a visionary within the art community.  He was a painter, photographer, film maker, sculptor and all-round eccentric hero.
(NOTE: I have used the excellent description texts below from the Dali Sculpture Exhibition website, these descriptions are placed in quotes for clarity, a link to the full site is available in the reference links)

In 1931 he painted probably his most famous painting "The Persistence of Memory" (there is a link to this in the reference section) which featured the melting clocks for the first time, here is a sculpture called "The Nobility of Time" featuring the clock in a slightly different way.

"The terminology, "the crown of a watch" is assumed to mean a mechanical device that allows us to set the hands and wind the timepiece. Time, however, according to a Dalinian watch, has no internal power or motion. Given this watch's lack of movement, the crown is interpreted as a royal crown adorning the watch, clearly identifying time's mastery over human beings, rather than being an object of utility."

This sculpture is based on "Alice in Wonderland", Dali also created a series of paintings based on this famous book, as seen in the background.

"Alice's hands and hair have blossomed into roses, and her jump rope has become a twisted cord. She encounters the confusion of the surreal looking-glass world with the naiveté and unanswerable logic of the eternal child, finally emerging into reality unharmed, and also unchanged."

This sculpture is called "Homage to Newton", Dali admired Newton so much for his discoveries that "when the King of Spain dedicated a large plaza in Madrid to him in May of 1986, Dali created a large monument of Newton for the plaza."

"The human head (and an analytical and emotional mind) is the principle part of the body that differentiates humans from other animals. In the creation of "Birdman", Dali has removed this 'advantage', and replaced it with a brain both incapable of higher thinking and learning, as well as being unable to create art or appreciate art in any form."

Okay it seems I cannot find the official name for this sculpture, but it was near the Don Quixote painting series, so we will assume that it was something along those lines.

"This woman, almost entirely composed of flames, combines two of Dali's favourite obsessions: fire, and a female figure interspersed with drawers. Dali found flames fascinating because they seem to have a life of their own, exerting an almost hypnotic influence on the observer. The flames also represent the erotic impulses of the female figure. Dali once explained this figure as a Freudian outgrowth of the natural curiosity of children to investigate enclosed spaces, both in order to satisfy the desire to know what these spaces contain, and to exorcise the fear that what is unknown may be harmful. Freud explained that drawers are a representation of the concealed sexuality of women. Dali portrays many of the drawers to be slightly ajar, indicating that their secrets are known and no longer to be feared. Two crutches rise from the figure, symbolising a blend of authority, stability and sexual power." this statue is "Woman Aflame"

 'Galutska en ultra-surréalisme corpusculaire (Ultra-Surrealistic Corpuscular Galutska), series Mémoires de surréalisme (Memories of Surrealism)

'Cirouette culinaire (Culinary Weather Vane), from the series 'Songes drolatiques de Pantagruel', (Pantagruel's Comical Dreams)

One of the pages created for Dali's 'Roméo et Juliette'

From the series 'Tarot', this tarot card is the "Knight of Swords"

"Biblia Sacra 6- Mulier e latere viri"

In 1963 Dali was commissioned by his friend and patron Guiseppe Albaretto to create illustrations for a bible to be printed as a means to guide Dali back to God and the Church. , this took six years to complete, he also used a technique of his own devising called "bulletism" where he fired an arquebus (an old flintlock style rifle) which he loaded with ink capsules and fired at sheets of paper. Whatever random pattern appeared would then be incorporated into the drawing.

And here as a bonus image....Salvador Dali walking his pet anteater... don't ask questions you just saw some examples of how his mind worked.

Next! Just to catch my breath, I have decided the I will do a type of extreme tourism post which covers the cemetery stuff and a few other bits which don't quite need a full entry each

References:

Salvador Dali - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador_Dali
The Persistence of Memory - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Persistence_of_Memory
Descriptions of the Sculptures - http://www.dalisculptureeditions.com/Index.asp?Sez=Sculpture
Espace Dalí (official site) - http://www.daliparis.com/

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Sacre Coueur, Paris, France

Part Two of the Paris blog! Several months after it happened of course...

A visit to the Sacré-Cœur (or Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris as it is also known), this impressive basilica resides at the top of the hill in Montmartre (the famously bohemian neighbourhood of Paris)

The basilica was originally conceived of in 1870 as a form of penance by Bishop Fournier, who suggested that the reason for Frances failure during the Franco-Prussian war was due to the moral decline of their society.  It was for this reason that the basilica was erected in what was then Paris' most rebellious neighbourhood.

The basilica was constructed using Château-Landon stone, which is very high in Calcite, which gives the building its distinctive white exterior.

Within the basilica is also housed one of the worlds heaviest bells, the Savoyarde which weighs an impressive 19 tons... however we did not spend too much time inside... instead we visited the catacombs beneath the basilica.

Montmartre means the Mount of the Martyr, and within Sacre Coueur's catacombs you will find many, beginning with the most famous St. Denis... an interesting fact about martyrs... St. Denis is a cephalophore, which is a very specific type of martyr which carries its own severed head.
Clearly this happened enough that they needed to create an entire word for it... weird.  There are in fact over 100 of them in French history alone. (and it is my new dream to locate more cephalophores around Europe!)

St. Denis is quite the badass however... it is said that when he was beheaded in Montmartre he walked all the way to the suburb which is now named after him, and the entire way he continued preaching from his severed head.

St. Francois Xavier, is the patron saint of "Catholic Missions" and was quite the globetrotter, performing missionary work in India, Japan, and Indonesia.  It is said that aside from Paul the Apostle, he converted more people to the faith than anyone in history.

Shamefully I don't recall specific details about these next few gentlemen, but I believe they were the priests responsible for the building of the basilica. (shoot me a note if I am wrong)

The man above is Cardinal Leon Adolphe Amette who was archbishop of Paris between 1908–1920, he was also the man to consecrate the basilica in 1919.

Unfortunately this one I do not have any details about...

And above the main relic chapel in the centre of the crypt.  Interestingly there is some mystery around the crypts... it is said that somewhere inside lies a piece of the sacred heart of Jesus, this is where the basilica gets its name.
This is mentioned in several guidebooks, and yet no official church documentation exists to back these claims..  so if a piece of the heart does reside somewhere in the crypts it is certainly not marked in any way.

This man I am sure was a kind, godly and generous man who has some fantastic significance.  But I challenge you to not immediately think of the Emperor from Star Wars... this statue was very unnerving.

So there you go, a very brief summary of the roughly twenty minutes we spent at Sacre Couer!

Next up! Famous Graves and the Dali Museum!

References:
Sacre Coueur - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_Of_The_Sacred_Heart


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Palais Garnier (The Paris Opera House), Paris, France

This will be the first of several blog posts which cover my time in Paris earlier this year, there were so many photos and locations that a single blog post would have felt really rushed.

So the first location, Palais Garnier is somewhere I had always wanted to visit, in an online game I played a lot of called LegendMUD the Paris Opera House was described in great detail and the real thing was everything I thought it would be.

Like a lot of things the facade is covered in gold, statues, and busts of various patrons of the opera house.

And yet somehow they it doesn't feel as obnoxious as it does in other places around France.

In fact it could be said that this single building inspired my new love of statue photography haha

The building was originally conceived by Emperor Napoleon III, an interesting fact is that it was due to an attempted assassination as he was leaving the Opera with Empress Eugene, he then declared a competition to design an entirely new Opera House.

In 1860 Charles Garnier won this contest, a site was selected and the land was cleared, however the site contained a huge amount of groundwater which could not be drained.
Garnier then devised a second foundation, in the form of a large concrete tank and watercourse, this would hold the moisture and the weight of the tank helps to stabilize the building.
This is also where the rumors began that the Opera House is built on top of a huge subterranean lake.

During a performance of Helle' in 1896 a tragedy occurred within the Opera house, two of the enormous counterweights which hold the chandelier in place dropped, smashing their way through the ceiling and killing Madame Chomette an audience member.  This tragedy as well as the strange rumors of an underground lake are the two most significant things which inspired Gaston Leroux to write The Phantom of the Opera.

I don't think I really have much more to add at this point, since we didn't take a formal tour so I missed out on all of the usual interesting tales about the building itself.

It is definitely an amazing building to walk through though, every corner and surface contains some beautiful artwork, or sculpture, and for the massive number it still doesn't feel obnoxious like the Palace of Versailles.

So much beauty in one place was probably the first time I really felt this way in Europe to be honest.

And so many chandeliers! You would think they would have been a little less excited about them after killing a patron.

Next Blog! - Sacre Coueur and famous graves!

References:
Wikipedia Entry for the Building - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palais_Garnier
Article about The Phantom - http://bit.ly/aZT7Y9
Article about the Chandelier Accident - http://bit.ly/189WiVG
Charlies Garnier - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Garnier_(architect)
Gaston Leroux - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaston_Leroux

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Toyohashi, Japan

Welcome to my latest EXTREME TOURISM entry, this is one day in Toyohashi, Japan!

Toyohashi is an interesting city really, I was only there for a few days and didn't really have a local guide or much to go on, aside from the fact that there was a castle to be seen!

So I set off towards Toyohashi City Park where the castle could be found.

Along the way to the castle there was a series of really quite disturbing statues, each had a plaque which contained a story, if only I knew how to read kanji...

These most excellent statues of a phoenix are outside the Toyohashi City Public Hall, there are additional phoenixes! (note: in mythology there was only ever one phoenix, so plural phoenixes is just an estimation)

Upon arriving at the park, we read the noticeboard to find out where the castle was and were directed along a path.... 

Eventually we found the castle! This is actually a modern reconstruction of only one tiny part of what the castle had originally looked like. Here is some history from Wikipedia -


A castle was built on the banks of the Toyokawa River in 1505 by Makino Kohaku, a retainer of Imagawa Ujichika to secure his foothold on eastern Mikawa Province against the growing power of the Matsudaira clan in western Mikawa Province.
Due to its strategic location on a river crossing, the castle was involved in numerous battles during the Sengoku period, changing hands several times and was destroyed and rebuilt on several occasions.
From 1565, the castle came under the control of Tokugawa Ieyasu, who named Sakai Tadatsugu as castellan.
Following the Battle of Odawara in 1590, Toyotomi Hideyoshi ordered the Tokugawa clan to relocate to the Kanto region and assigned the castle to Ikeda Terumasa.
Ikeda developed the surrounding castle town and embarked on a massive and ambitious plan to rebuild Yoshida Castle.
However, following the Battle of Sekigahara, he was relocated to Himeji Castle, with the central keep not completed.

After the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate, Yoshida Castle became the center of Yoshida Domain, a feudal domain, which occupied a strategic position on the Tokaido between Edo and Nagoya.
The domain was assigned to several different fudai daimyo clans until coming into the possession of the Matsudaira (Nagasawa-Okochi) clan in 1752, which remained in residence at Yoshida until the Meiji Restoration.
The final daimyo of Yoshida, Matsudaira Nobuhisa, surrendered the castle without resistance to the Meiji government in 1868.
The castle was turned over to the fledgling Imperial Japanese Army in 1871, but largely was destroyed in a fire in 1873.
Much of the castle grounds remained in the hands of the military until the end of World War II.

Following the end of the war, a portion of the Third Bailey was transformed into Toyohashi Park, and the modern Toyohashi City Hall was constructed on another portion.
In 1954, a three-story yagura, the Kurogane Yagura was reconstructed out of reinforced concrete. An art museum and sports facilities were later erected on the site of the Inner Baileys.

The previously mentioned art museum we did not venture inside, but outside was a fairly brazen statue of some naked ladies... saucy! The photo I have of the front was way too hot for this humble blog.

Here is a random man hole cover.... most excellent!

And the obligatory temple, which we also did not go inside... I may actually post some of my older photos of Japan sometime soon since I actually visited some really quite cool places in Tokyo last time.

Next time: Paris, France (FINALLY!)


References:
Toyohashi Wikipedia Entry - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyohashi,_Aichi
Yoshida Castle - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshida_Castle
Siege of Yoshida Castle - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Yoshida_Castle
Toyohashi City Museum - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyohashi_City_Museum_Art_and_History

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