VACATIONS Part 4 - The Final Part

Thursday, July 5th 2012

Le Musée Rodin - Jardin

Since I am an European citizen and between 18-25 years old, I can visit any museum that I want for free; or as the French say "graduit".

After my visit to Louvre, the next one was Le Musée Rodin - Jardin, which is close to l' église des Invalides. The museum consists of the garden (jardin) and two buildings, the Hôtel  Biron where the main exposition is hosted, and the main building (reception, bookstore etc. ) where another exposition is shown.

I started with the garden. It's a very beautiful garden where at some parts there are rose bushes, sculptures of Auguste Rodin, a woodland area and a fountain with a small pond giving the feeling of tranquility and serenity. Then, I went into the Hôtel  Biron, a building with two floors (ground and 1st floor) where the sculptor's best-known works are; they were made by marble and bronze. One room is dedicated to his lover Camille Claudel. Now, at the area of the visitor lobby, there is a room in which many exhibitions have been hosted. This time, the name of the temporary exhibition was "Rodin, La Chair, Le Marble". Sculptures that impressed me:

1. Le Baisser (The Kiss)
2. La Femme-Poisson (The Woman-Fish-----> the face of a woman with her mouth wide-open just like a fish in the water)
3. La main de Dieu (The hand of God)
4. Le jour et la nuit (The day and the night)
5. Psyché et l' amour (Psyche and he love)
6. Jeux d' enfants (Childrens' games)
7. Diane (Diana-goddess)
8. La main du Diable (The hand of Devil)
9. L' âge mûr  (The age of maturity)
10. La Vague (The Wave)
11. Le Sommeil (The Sleep)
12. La Porte de l' Enfer (The Gates of Hell) 
13. Le Penseur (The Thinker) and
14. La Valse (The Waltz)

Saturday, July 7th 2012 & Sunday July 8th 2012

Weekend-off! It's a chance to visit many places.

First stop: Notre-Dame        Bad Thing: Rainy Weather!!

Looking at the Notre-Dame, anyone can notice that the three entrances with the roman-style arcs are decorated with human figures. This fact impressed me while I was waiting to get into the church. As getting into, I admired the vitreaux with the saints' figures and then Le Trésor de Notre-Dame (The Treasure of Notre-Dame), a separate room with objets d' ancien régime. Afterwards, inside the church, there was "une exposition photographique : Thérèse de Lisieux ou la brulûre d' amour?".

I was ready to leave when I realised that I hadn't climbed up on the Towers of Notre-Dame. Going up was a LOOOOOOOOOOONG ADVENTURE! Where shall I begin? The queue was LONG and I had to wait for 2,5 hours. Furthermore, while I was standing, it started pouring cats and dogs. Finally, it was my turn to go up! TIP: If anyone wants to go upstairs, he or she has to be in a good shape, not being afraid of heights and not having heart problems since the only way is climbing up a 400-spiral-staircase!

What impressed me?

• From the top you can see les Gragouilles  (the little monsters and if you don't understand, you can watch (again) the "Esmeralda"-Disney movie!)
• The view!!!! For one more time, I caught myself with my mouth wide-open admiring the view. La Seine, la Tour Eiffel, la Montmartre etc.

More places that I visited were Panthéon, Jardin du Luxembourg, Centre de George Pompidou, La Place de la Bastille.