St. Chapelle is a Gothic chapel built by Louis IX in 1248 to hold the trinkets he picked up on his first foreign trip (i.e. "Crusade"). Apparently, the Venetian merchants had a few baubles that he was interested in and which he brought back as mementos of his travels:
Christ's Crown of Thorns
two pieces of the true Cross
a nail from the Cross
the Roman soldier's lance that pierced Christ's side
several drops of Christ's blood
a plastic statue of the Eiffel Tower
Notre Dame Cathedral is right next door, but instead of five years to build, it took almost 200 years. Pope Alexander III laid the foundation in 1163. Almost 700 years later when Napoleon chose Notre Dame as the place for his coronation the Cathedral was in shambles. But even in its run down state it was still the place for an emperor to receive his crown.
A structure like Notre Dame envelopes you with awe from the moment you enter it with solemn reverence. The three large circular stained glass windows in the clerestory are trance-inducing, especially when you view them from inside the Cathedral as vocalists harmonize celestial hymns. Actually some of the large windows are relatively new and were installed after WWII, but not because of damage from bombing in the war.
The problem came several centuries earlier when Louis XV decided he didn't like the stained glass and replaced two of the round windows with clear glass. Hey, it seemed like a good idea at the time, right?
The Louvre is now a huge museum, the largest in the world. The reason it is so big is that it was originally built to be a palace. Henry IV was stabbed to death by an assassin there in 1610. Louis XVI magnanimously agreed to use the palace to display some of the royal art collection shortly before his political fortunes took a serious turn for the worse, resulting in his execution in 1793.
The museum now houses such treasures as the Mona Lisa, Hammurabi's Code, and the Venus de Milo. To get through the museum in one day is impossible even if you just want to walk through every room. Most people just want to see the highlights, especially the Mona Lisa. The lines to walk past this well known masterpiece are huge and the whole process of viewing it reminds me of standing in a line at Disneyworld. As you finally reach the painting there are agressive security people commanding the line to "keep moving" and to please not take photographs. People take photos anyway, and thereby use up their precious time viewing the picture through a camera viewfinder.
The Louvre should partner with Disney to come up with a ride that charges people for the opportunity to sit in a cart that wisks them past the great art treasures. Then, just like the Rock 'N Roll ride at MGM they could pay for the picture of them that was taken automatically as they were passing by the Mona Lisa. This could be a major profit center, and it would free up the hallways for people who, for whatever strange reason, want to view the other 29,997 works of art that are on display in the museum.
The year 1789 was a pivotal year in French history. That's the year that is used to mark the start of the French Revolution, mainly because it's when the revolutionaries decided to storm the Bastille, the fortress where prisoners of the state were held, and generally mistreated.
In reality the revolution sort of took a few years to get underway; the serious executions of people like Marie Antoinette didn't begin until a few years later. Still, 1789 was a big year. So for the One Hundred Year Anniversary the people of Paris wanted to do something special to commemorate that event. And 1889 was also the year of the International Exhibition so that also made it a good year to build a big new monument. People were invited to submit their proposals for a monument, and 700 people participated in the contest.
One chap had the idea of a huge Guillotine, since the Guillotine had played such a pivotal role in the French Revolution. The head-dicing contraption had been created around the time of the revolution by a French physician who thought that current methods of killing people (i.e. chopping their heads off with a sword) were unreliable and caused unnecessary suffering. So, believe it or not, the Guillotine was created to be a more humane method of execution.
Well, the 1889 committee didn't select the Guillotine as the prize winning entry, which is good because it might have made it harder for travel agents to portray Paris as a "romantic city." Instead the selection committee--in a bold stroke of genius--chose the entry of Geoge Eiffel, and so that has become the main emblem of Paris, reproduced in thousands of small replicas, emblazoned on all manner of T-Shirts and postcard photos.
From the time that it was built until 1930, the 1,000 foot tower was the tallest structure in the world. Obviously, it was a bold monument for a City that was not at a loss for monuments to commemorate its important history. Even so, many Parisians didn't appreciate the Eiffel Tower when it was built, mainly because it so dominated the landscape. For example, Guy de Maupassant, who hated the tower, said that he like to eat lunch there because it was the only place in Paris where he could do so without having to look at it.
Well, I'm back from Paris, France. Napoleon Bonaparte is sort of a well-known figure over there, so he is a good person for a Louisianian to use to tie together the rich 2,000 year history of Paris.
In 1803, Napoleon sold Louisiana to our country --in fact, there is a special exhibition here in New Orleans entitled Jefferson's America - Napoleon's France that explores this epic historical event.
In addition to Napoleon's connection to Louisiana, he also had ties to the City of New Orleans. Sort of. The Napoleon House, an interesting bar in the French Quarter, was to have been his home if the rescue from Elba had been successful.
It's a fine bar, but from my review of the places that Napoleon hung out in while in Paris I'm not sure it would have been sufficiently sumptuous for his taste. After all, this is a man who was crowned in Notre Dame Cathedral, impatiently snatching the crown away from the Pope who was apparently taking too long with the ceremony.
One thing you have to like about him is his method of dealing with an inefficient legal system. Napoleon created the Napoleonic Code, which is one thing that distinguishes the legal system of Louisiana from that of the other 49 states. Napoleon considered his Code to be among his most significant achievements, and clearly it was. There are so many things one could say about this keenly ambitious man, but I think enough pith has been dispensed. So I'll end with this exerpt from a song lyric.
"I have never met Napoleon, but I plan to find the time. I have never met Napoleon, but I plan to find the time. 'Cause he looks so fine upon that hill. They tell me he was lonely, he's lonely still. Those days are gone forever. Over a long time ago, oh yeah..."
St. Chapelle is a Gothic chapel built by Louis IX in 1248 to hold the trinkets he picked up on his first foreign trip (i.e. "Crusade"). Apparently, the Venetian merchants had a few baubles that he was interested in and which he brought back as mementos of his travels:
The year 1789 was a pivotal year in French history. That's the year that is used to mark the start of the 
Well, I'm back from Paris, France. Napoleon Bonaparte is sort of a well-known figure over there, so he is a good person for a Louisianian to use to tie together the rich 2,000 year history of Paris.
