Judgement Day

Two days ago we went to the Vatican. My favourite part was the painting by Michelangelo in the Sistine chapel called "Judgement  Day" to my surprise more so than the painting of the hands touching on the ceiling. "Judgement Day" had lots of detail and was very different from the rest of the paintings in the Vatican museum that we saw before it. Most of the paintings in the main museum were not very bright but "Judgement day" was a bit lighter in its colours and had a lot more going on.




Ethan

Clever ancient Romans

ifitwasntfortheromansallwritingwouldlooklikethis

I'm glad they figured out punctuation!

Paul

Clemesseum.

Yesterday, we went to the Basilica of Saint Clement.  It is actually a church on a church on a church.  On the top level it was just like any ordinary church in Rome.  On the second level down there were a lot of artefacts like ends and parts of pillars. On the bottom level, which was underground, I found out that there was only a very small community and only males were allowed inside then.

After that, we went to the Colosseum.  It was very big and it looked different to how I expected because the top layer was just stone with square windows, instead of arches like other levels.  On the inside the arena part, most of it was uncovered, and underneath it there were stone rooms where I think they might have kept the lions and bears.  Most of the stone seats were worn off, so it looked like a big slope.

After the Colosseum, we went to a pizza place for lunch.  I got a pizza with slices of hotdogs on it.  It tasted like the best pizza I’ve ever had (obviously)!

Angus

Chateau de Chambord

On Tuesday, we went to Chateau de Chambord. First, we saw the inside of the Chateau. There where three floors. We went from the top to the bottom. In the stair case me and my mum wet on one side and Ethan and my dad went on the other side.  In the stair case we could look through windows and see each other.

After we had viewed the inside of the Chateau we all went on a peddle car.  Ethan and my dad went in the back seats to drive and peddle and me and my mum went in the front.  Near the end I had a go a peddling and steering.  I drove terribly!

Au revoir

Angus

Bloody royals

Yesterday we visited the Versailles Palace, and Chateau de Chambord, both former royal palaces to different kings.

Both incredible structures.  The hall of mirrors at Versailles was particularly spectacular, with windows along one side, and then mirrors on the other exactly matching the windows in position and shape.  Chambord was about 2 hours from Versailles (which was just out of Paris), on 4,500 hectares of largely forest.  Inside it was largely empty, although it had a fantastic staircase that they believe may have been designed by Leonardo Di Vinci when he lived there for 4 years.  But it was the setting of this enormous castle, in amongst the forest that was the most striking.

I don’t know enough about French history to make sense of the French revolution, however the enormous excesses at these buildings gives a bit of a hint as to where resentments might have bred.  There was evidently considerable wealth within France in order to construct these palaces, but it would seem that wealth was restricted to a very few, who then felt the need to spend it building grossly excessive homes and living ridiculously decadent lives – the king at Versailles had a going to bed ceremony and a getting out of bed ceremony.

Perhaps it’s no different to other parts of the world, eg, Taj Mahal in India, but here it seems the people decided enough was enough and threw the royals out.  They’ve left behind some great tourist attractions, but I think if I was the average French person back in the day, I’d be glad to see the back of them.

Paul

Jess's views on Paris

My turn again!  We've been in Paris for four days now and it has been wonderful.  Except for the stairs.  I think I'm climbing about 20 flights of stairs every day!  Every station seems to have several flights and we have been at several stations each day.  Go to the Louvre?  Stairs.  Musee DÓrsay?  Stairs.  Montmartre?  LOTS of stairs!  I'm going to come home with legs of steel.  Sadly I'm also going to come home with a tummy of croissants, ice cream and macarons.

I loved the Louvre.  I could spend a week there and still not see it all.  We paid the obligatory visit to the Mona Lisa and I still don't understand why it's so famous.  I know nothing about art admittedly, but there are so many paintings that I loved so much more than that one.

Musée D'Orsay was similarly amazing.  But again I think I'm not 'getting' it where Monet is concerned.  Obviously I can see he had talent and was an amazing artist, but Sisley, Degas and Renoir are far more appealing to me.  Maybe Monet's work has been over-commercialised?

We've visited three churches here - all absolutely beautiful.  Sainte-Chapelle was stunning!  It was built in the 13th century to house what was believed to be Jesus' crown of thorns.  I was disappointed when we first entered as the downstairs area, whilst beautiful didn't live up to the expectations I had.  Plus it had a whole row of stands selling merchandise.  Then I realised there was an upstairs.  Wow!  Massive stained glass windows all around, beautiful frescoes and statues.  Just breath-taking!  I was equally as awe-struck at Notre Dame Basilica.  The carvings on the outside alone made it worth visiting!  The third church was Sacré Coer at Montmartre.  We arrived during mass and the nuns were singing.  I'm sure there must be some pre-requisite to becoming a nun that you have to be able to sing.  Just as well it wasn't a calling I ever had since my singing is totally flat!

One thing I've found really annoying at several places is that in spite of signs everywhere saying "No Photos", there are people everywhere taking as many photos as possible.  I don't know whether I'm angry that they are breaking the rules or that I'm too much of a rule-follower to do the same!  It was particularly noticeable today at Sacre Coer where mass was in progress and there were flashes going off all over the place.  I keep reminding myself that I can't tell my boys to follow the rules if I'm breaking them, so I'll keep my camera turned off where it says to, even when my fingers are itching to photograph the same things everyone else is!

Tomorrow we collect our hire car and start heading south.  Versailles first, then down to Chartres and a night in Blois.  We haven't planned any further than that.  So much to see, so little time!

Jess

Our time in Paris

We arrived in Paris a few days ago and its been very good and very funny when we try to communicate to the people that speak little English. We found a nice ice cream place that we had dessert at two nights in a row. The people smoke and spit a lot but are all nice. Even those asked questions on the street have been nice. The Eiffel Tower was a lot taller than I thought it would be and is great at night when it's lit up but we didn't climb up it. Today we went to Sacre Coer Cathedral in Montmarte which was amazing because all the mosaics were all made of the little square tiles even a giant one on the roof. We also had a picnic today. We got cheese, a baguette, raspberries, strawberries and macrons but the baguette was amazing it had a nice crunchy, hard crust with a nice soft inside. My favourite thing in Paris so far has been either the paintings in Musee D'Orsay or a room in Sainte-Chappelle with stained glass windows everywhere telling many biblical stories. Overall I think we have covered Paris well and I don't feel the need to come back even though we haven't seen all of it, we've seen all of the things I wanted to see. Unless it was after learning some French and coming to live for a few months there is little incentive to come back for more than a few days. Soon we will be in Italy just as I started getting used to saying merci instead of thank you to people I will have to start saying grazie.


-Ethan