This is the bridge Liam Neeson jumped off of at the end of Taken, when he was trying to save his daughter.
This is just one small portion of the Jardin Des Tuileries (Gardens of Tuileries).
The best pic of Notre Dame I've gotten so far.
Me at the Louvre. You'll recognize the 'invisible' pyramid.
The Palace of Justice, really close to Notre Dame. Marie Antionette was held here. If you take a tour you can actually see her cell.
These locks are on the same bridge that Liam Neeson jumped from. The locks come from an old Italian equivilant story of Romeo and Juliet. The story was the girl was tricked into chaining her lover onto the bridge and he'd stay there until he died. The key wouldn't work to release him. In despair, the girl swallowed the key, and jumped into the river, killing herself, but making their love eternal, him with the lock and her the key. People don't do this today. They write each others names' on a lock, lock it to the fence, and dramatically throw the key into the river below, supposedly making their love eternal.
None of the faces on the New Bridge (which is actually the oldest bridgge in Paris) are the same. The story was the king (King Henry the 4th I believe) built this bridge over 40 years. To celebrate the completion, he invited all his rich friends to raid his wine cellar, as a thank you to enduring the tax he imposed on wine to create his bridge. They drank the entire royal stash. The king then opened up his reserve stash of champenge, they got really drunk, and started acting how really drunk people act. The king wanted to remember all his friends this way, but being drunk himself knew he wouldn't; so he called for an charicature artist to come and draw all his friends. The artist did. The next morning, the king was so amussed going through the drawings, he had each face made and put onto his newly finished bridge. Like a really bad photo showing up on facebook -- these poor guys though have been hanging around for hundreds of years.
A picture I took of a pair of lovers while I was at the Louvre. There was something really compelling about them.
I love it when you take a picture of yourself with wonderful scenery behind you! They are all great pictures of both you and the scenery!
ReplyDeleteI think I look like such a dork in most of these :) It's hard, because even though I hold my camera as far out as possible, it doesn't get a ton of the background in it...lol
DeleteThat picture of the "lovers" in front of the invisible pyramid could be the cover of a book or framed and hung. Looks VERY professional!!!
ReplyDeleteWell, thank you! I don't know, I saw them, and there was just something really nice about them -- just a young couple in love, in the city that is all about love, at the Louvre...it all worked. I had to be discrete though -- I didn't want them to think I was a creeper.
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