This is a title for the past 3 days in Paris

The three days that we have ventured through has been an overall positive insight on historical monuments. I appreciate history in its utter most glory. I enjoyed viewing Notre Dame, Versailles and Louvre. But when looking at other tourists, it seems they were more into it’s beauty and don’t understand the full meaning of what they are looking at. So I guess my theme for this blog post is beauty.

Notre Dame is the oldest thing in Paris. It has seen every war Europe has fought within nearly the last millennium. It’s not just the house of god, but also a historical story of Paris. The neighborhood around Notre Dame is old itself but also built pretty to mock what Notre Dame is. Gift shops line the streets and that’s there way of getting tourists to keep the memory alive with their horribly printed Eiffel Tower shirts. Taking in the history, Notre Dame was a place of worship. Monasteries lined the cathedral and people flock to worship God. It was pretty then, but it had meaning. In today’s context, the building is flocked to because it’s “pretty” and that’s only what it’s seen as. Looking around tourists took pictures and walked away. They didn’t stand off to the side to look a bit closer and understand what they are really looking at. Notre Dame was built on blood and tears, and every detail shows it. Looking at a particular stained glass window, I saw that window had the light shining bright through it. The sunshine reflected back this beautiful pattern within the frames. As someone who works with pattern work, I know it’s insane to create them. But thinking, people had to etch them into glass, which takes hours, if not days. So once I got that notion, it triggered that people only enjoy the beauty it gives off and forgot what it took to create that.

The Versailles palace needless to say…was tacky. I used to be so obsessed with it, but now as I look at it in real life, I’m not exactly phased with it. All I saw was gold everywhere and nothing else. I’m more guessing the reason behind that thought was because everyone on the planet was inside. Pushing and shoving their way because they lost their tour group. It ruined the time looking at everything. The experience was a loss. I more enjoyed the gardens and Marie Antoinette’s Hamlet & Petit Triannon because nobody cared really about them. They were like the hidden jewel of Versailles. So my focus was on those. The area around the Petit Triannon was calming. Not many people pushed and shoved themselves through. Going along with what Marie Antoinette wanted, the Triannon was defiantly an escape of real life. Tourists didn’t want to make the trek to view everything it had. Tourists wanted the one thing that was pretty, which was the palace. The Petit Triannon was lavish but it wasn’t over done like the palace. Decorative ornaments a-lined every inch of the building, but it wasn’t dosed in gold. Looking closer, I saw the clever design strategies. On the grad staircase, was a logo. It was Marie Antoinette’s. It had the M and A cross over. The first communication design element I saw from an early time of this subject. I was immediately drawn to it because it was of course pretty but it had charm and wit to it. It was simple yet effective. Even if you didn’t know it was Marie Antoinette’s the initials logo spoke for it’s self. 

The Louvre held it’s own beauty, without all the artifacts and artwork. Viewing around, the Louvre was centered off it’s own scale. It was majestic and in all honest opinion, better than Versailles. Just like the Petit Triannon, it was decorative but not in an ultra lavish way. But the palace it’s self isn’t what people want to view, it’s what’s inside. The two articles I decided to get a sneak at were what I could see in relation to Louvre. One such object was a jewelry box from the Islamic exhibit. The box was small with exquisite patterns. It wasn’t dosed in colors or imprinted with some king’s image. It was simple yet effective. The space it was in had this flowy movement that made Lauren all giddy but me, I was like meh. I was more involved with the history of this object and what it held. The beauty was there but the history of it was what intrigued me. Unfortunately everything was in French so I couldn’t grasp that part. But it still held a positive reaction to me, but as far as other viewers go, people just walked on by it. A second article I chose was the Sleeping Hermaphrodiotos. The statue was placed right smack dab in the front of the entry. It was moving and spiked curiosity. It wasn't something I've ever seen before. I think why I liked it was because the female figure was laying down and covered on the front side of the body. Usually Greek's exposed almost the entire front side of a lady.  

I guess this is a summary of the last three days. Here's to many more.