Week of July 25th 2011: The Smithsonian Museums and the National Portrait Gallery

I was originally going to do a post for every museum I visited, but I think it may get a little tiring if there are 30 posts from this trip. I'm going to do a lot of condensing so even though I could write a book on the Smithsonian museums, I'm going to try to limit it to a blog post... you may need to read this one in a few goes. I am also including the National Portrait Gallery.
(I also apologize for the poor picture quality - this is the camera that fell down some rocks and went swimming when I was in Los Angeles and it never quite recovered)

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My first stop on the Smithsonian tour was the American History museum. I knew next to nothing about the museum and wasn't really looking forward to it but it was the closest to where I was and I was dying to get out of the heat. Well, to say the museum surpassed my expectations would be an understatement.

I may be biased though... I decided to explore the museum in order and of course the first exhibit I wandered into explored Los Angeles in the early 90's. For those not aware, this was basically my childhood. It was fun to see an exhibit that explored the place I lived as a kid especially when there was one board specifically on the San Fernando Valley.

The American history museum is also where you can find a lot of really cool American relics. In one extremely dark and chilled room, the original Star Spangled banner can be seen. It's basically in shreds after all of these years so the museum is doing it's best to preserve it (and of course that means no photography so you will have to go check it out for yourself).

After that, I decided to check out the Hall of First Ladies. I think many people may be familiar with this exhibit, but as I had said, I knew next to nothing about this museum before visiting it. The first hallway that I walked down had beautiful sketches of many historical First Lady Inauguration dresses. I was so excited, I decided to start snapping photos of all of them, especially those before I was born. I thought it was so cool that I could see what they all looked like.... until I went into the next room and they were all on the display. The actual dresses. I'm not very big into fashion, but that was cool. Of course the more recent dresses were in the center of the room, including Michelle's dress from 2008. I really enjoy seeing things in person that I had seen on TV. There is something fascinating about being able to get a close up on those little details that just don't get caught on the camera.

The last exhibit that really caught my eye was the one on Film and Television. This is where you can find some more fun artifacts from our country's great entertainment industry such as Dorothy's ruby red slippers and some of the original Muppets. My favorite piece though of course was the 70's Batman TV show Catwoman costume. I found it very entertaining that a few weeks earlier I was able to see the Michelle Pfeiffer Catwoman suit when I was at the Tim Burton exhibit. This means I only have one more Catwoman suit to track down and that movie isn't even out yet. 


The best part of the whole museum though was seeing a picture of one of my friends in the robotic section. It turns out, his contributions to that field earned him and his team a spot in the Smithsonian which was really cool to see. I was so proud of him and also felt like I knew a celebrity. When anyone else walked by, I wanted to brag that I knew that guy. 

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Extra in Independence Day

After the American History Museum, I went next door to the Natural History Museum. Typically, I don't get excited about natural history museums because to me, they are just a collection of stuffed animals. However, after being thoroughly impressed with the American History Museum, I decided to give it a shot. 

 There definitely were a lot of collections of stuffed animals, but it was way more than that. The facts and displays they had were really interesting. I think I'd just gotten turned off from them because I had seen a really boring exhibit on mammals a year earlier. The ocean exhibits were particularly cool since they had a fun exhibit of Giant Squid - which I've decided are the inspiration for quite a few movies about aliens. It was also cool to see the Paleontology exhibits. I hadn't really been to a museum with nearly that many fossils (even though these were just copies, of course). 


But I'm sure it's easy to guess what I liked the best.... the Hope Diamond! I also wasn't expecting to see this on my museum excursion, but I really should have known it was there since it was a big plot point on one of my favorite South Park episodes. The Hope Diamond and all of the other jewels are extremely beautiful. I really enjoy seeing diamonds of different colors. It's also fun to see something different. 

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Maybe he'll catch the road runner?

The next day, Mike had to work in the morning so I was on my own again. After visiting the National Archives (which we'll get to later), I decided to visit the National Portrait Gallery and its Sculpture Gardens. I thought on a lovely July day, a midday walk through the sculpture garden would be nice - well, I really overestimated my ability to handle heat. 8 years in the Bay Area has left me really incapable of handling seasons. Plus, even though I grew up in Los Angeles, the dry heat was much more bearable than the stifling humidity of the East Coast. I quickly took my walk through the garden and ended up spending a long time sitting with my feet in the fountain. 


As you can imagine, I was eager to get into the air conditioned Portrait Gallery. The portrait gallery is really large and broken up into two museums. The first wing has more classical art. Since I had several hours to kill and didn't feel the need to go outside again, I was able to explore both thoroughly. I think a lot of the classical pieces are similar to a lot of posts I've written about before so I'm going to brush over that pretty quickly. The only thing that really stood out to me was that once again, this museum had a Degas Ballerina. Since I had just seen another in New York the week before, I finally came to the conclusion that there were several of them. I also went in search of the Dutch wing to see if they had the Girl with the Pearl Earring. Still no luck so I finally broke down and looked it up. It's in the Hague of course but I'm excited to report that it's coming to SF in a few months and I can't wait to see it in person.

The second part of the museum has more modern and contemporary art. The two wings are connected by a space like tunnel that really reminds me of Space Mountain at Disneyland. When I got to the other side, there was a great contemporary art exhibit. The floor space for it was very open with a split level so when you walk up to it, the first thing you see is a display made up of dozens of hands saying things in sign language. I wish I had been able to translate!

Across from that was another cool piece of art - a giant black and white portrait of an older lady. It didn't seem that crazy... until I looked closely and saw that it was made up of thumbprints! I love how contemporary art has different angles like that. Something can seem so normal until you get up close and see that it's far more complicated.

The wing had several other standout pieces but then you always have the "I could have done that" stuff. For me, it was a wall that looked like it had been scribbled on with crayon. I actually used to that as a kid and got into a ton of trouble for it. Turns out I could have been an artistic genius who was suppressed before her full potential was reached.

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The last museum I went to visit was the Air and Space Museum. Even though this was one of the ones I was looking the most forward to, I was pretty beat by the time I'd gotten here. Two straight days of looking at Museums, Memorials, Archives, and the Political System (you have many fun posts to look forward to) had me a little museum'd out.


This time I wasn't alone though. My friends Nate and Mike joined me. Mike had been working all day so we literally left him to take a nap while we explored. The biggest thing I remember was that we spent a lot of time in the Wright Brothers exhibit. I was really interested in just how these guys finally pulled off the mechanics of flight. Nate was similarly interested so we both were really engrossed in all of the mechanisms they had in the room. 


I wish I'd been able to explore the museum more but at least there was one more highlight that is really neat. Along the sidewalk, they have all of the planets in our solar system, proportionally spaced from each other. In front of the museum, there is Pluto (I know, I know, but the Smithsonian website also says nine planets so I feel comfortable with this) and the rest of the planets, some comets and the sun are placed at one ten billionth of their actual scale. It was a cool thing to see and something to keep us entertained on our walk back to the Metro station.

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The Smithsonian museums are amazing. I could have spent weeks in there and I hope some day I get to go back and see more of the exhibits in detail, as well as the museums I missed. I'm really jealous of my D.C. friends who get to see these fantastic learning centers on a regular basis. 

Week of July 25th 2011: Welcome to Washington D.C. and the Corcoran Gallery of Art

The day after the Broadway show, I went to work for a little bit and then I was off on a bus to D.C. (Tangent - if you want to city hop, I recommend the bus system. My bus ticket was about $25 and I got two seats to myself because it wasn't full. It only takes a little longer than the train which was much more expensive.) 

In D.C., I would be staying with my friend Mike who works for congress. Since Mike would be working the first day I was there, I had a chance to explore on my own. If you haven't caught on yet, exploring on my own is one of my favorite things. Company is nice but so is being able to take in as much or as little as you like.

I took the Metro to the National Mall and figured I would just walk from there. I was really excited to check out the museums because they're all free. I thought I would walk around about since it was earlier in the day and the sun wasn't at full force yet. I went on a nice stroll past the White House and the National Christmas Tree before coming to the Corcoran Gallery of Art. I was a little taken aback when I was charged admission... yup, plenty of free, public museums and I stroll into one of the few private ones. I was a little embarrassed by the mistake so I paid the admission and went in.

The Corcoran Museum focuses on American Art but while I was there, many of the exhibits featured contemporary works. If you remember from my LACMA post, contemporary art was really growing on my radar so it was a fun museum to explore. As with any of the more modern types, there was some "How is this art? I made this in 3rd grade?" mixed in with some really cool plays on pop culture. I think you can imagine which was my preference.

One of my favorites though, was an exhibit that had a bunch of little glowing squares of different colors. It seemed cool but I couldn't figure it out so I read the sign and was excited when it said that this was an interactive exhibit. Guests could move around the little squares and if you touch them, they change color. I knew I had to leave my mark somehow and it didn't take me long to figure out exactly what I wanted to create. My contribution to the museum only lasted until the first group of kids appeared but at least I immortalized it in film.

Like many of the museum posts you'll see, I'm not going to go through gallery by gallery but I'll scatter some pretty pictures through the post. However, there was one more exhibit that stands out in my head. The featured exhibit was another modern artist who creates giant pieces while working outside. This one piece he did in a park and let birds walk all over it as part of the work. It was cool to see how it changed with little bird prints in it.

I guess that's the thing about modern art... maybe it wasn't the most skilled piece I've ever seen but there is a "I've never thought about that" quality to it as well. A few months earlier, I would have been pretty annoyed about being in a museum with primarily modern and contemporary pieces but a lot of it is really growing on me. That's a huge take away from this blog... maybe you assume you don't like something but you really just need to try it. There is still a lot of modern art that I really think is stupid but there are just as many that are so talented or creative. I'm glad I've had to chance to discover this side of it as well.

Week of July 18th 2011: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The next day, I finally got to explore some of New York City. Elissa had to wait for some couches to be delivered to her apartment (she had only moved in a couple of weeks earlier after all) so we got lunch and then she left me to explore the Met on  my own.

To be honest, I kind of like exploring museums like this on my own. It's such a big museum with so many varieties of art that it's nice to just get lost and figure out what kind of things I like best. I quickly found a few things that I really loved about the Met. Since this trip was a while ago, my memory is a little fragmented so this post is going to jump around a little bit.

The thing I love most - was just the age of the building. One of my favorite things in the old European museums are the worn down steps that show just how many people have traversed over them though out the years. Another thing that I really loved about the Met were the buildings inside the building. Apparently when the Met was built, it was significantly smaller than it is now. In order to expand, they just continued to build around it, leaving the original pieces intact. This makes for a really cool aesthetic where you can often see parts of the original. I was so fascinated by this. It is so fun to see history as part of your surroundings - it's why I love the Paris museums so much as well.


I continued to wander around the museum in no particular order. The photography wing had a highlight that the nerd in me went crazy for. There was a wall that was covered in identical photos of the Lincoln side of a penny at different stages of oxidation. I was so amused by how different the penny could look depending on how far along it was. I think the exhibit itself focused on those kinds of intricacies in every day life.

I was excited to see Degas' ballerina statue though. I had learned about it in art class years ago and saw it at the Musee D'Orsay the first time I went. I knew the museum was under renovation so I figured this was where the original was hanging out until the renovation was done. I would soon find out how wrong I was.

Near the end of my trip to The Met I just wandered around the contemporary and modern art wings. Like I had mentioned before, contemporary art has really been growing on me. It definitely made my day to see a statue of a man crouched against a wall. It had a very fun Nightcrawler vibe to it and even though it's missing the tail, I decided to think of it as the Nightcrawler statue.


I really wish I had taken more notes about the museum when I went because I'm at a huge loss for things to say even though I know I really loved it. I guess I'll just scatter some pretty pictures through this post and call it a day.

Week of July 3rd 2011: La Brea Tar Pits

As I was driving around LACMA looking for parking, I had passed the La Brea Tar Pits. Despite buildings and streets in the area being named "La Brea," I had never pieced together that the tar pits were in the middle of a busy part of Los Angeles. I figured that since I was in the area, it would be a good opportunity to check out the  prehistoric landmark.

Along the street is one of the bigger pits. This one has some large, fake, extinct creatures placed in it for decoration so I decided to snap a few photos of that and then continue exploring.

The actual tar pits themselves are part of a bigger museum that focuses on the fossils that have been found and pre-historic discoveries. I'm actually a huge science nerd and really wanted to check this out, but I knew I didn't have enough time to really do it justice. It will probably be fun to come back some time with my young niece and help teach her about science (and post about that new experience too).

Since I wasn't able to go into the actual museum itself, I decided to keep walking around and looking at the various tar pits that were scattered around the park. Yes, the tar pits are actually separated by lovely paths and gardens (that I later found out all house pre-historic plants) so it was really nice to take a leisurely stroll around the area (about as leisurely as a 100 degree day can be at least).

After walking around a bit, I found something especially interesting - there was a tar pit that was currently under excavation. The pit had a small viewing area for guests to look into and see what the site looks like while scientists are busy unearthing new fossils. It was really interesting to see the set up and wonder if they'd found anything interesting so far.

According to their website, the new site was found when LACMA decided to build a new parking garage. In the process, they found new fossils. Luckily, they were able to start the new excavations despite the construction.

I really loved that there were current excavations going on. It's a good reminder that museums aren't just collections of artifacts for people to look at, they are also places where current research is being done and discoveries are being made.

Plus, it never hurts remembering that Science is fun. 

Week of July 3rd 2011: Los Angeles County Museum of Art

After checking out the Tim Burton exhibit, I decided to look through the rest of the LA County Museum of Art or LACMA, as it's more commonly referred to.

LACMA is in a very interesting space. The museum is held over several different buildings and outdoor spaces, showing a real separation between themes. As a natural progression, I decided to go to the building right next to the Tim Burton exhibit. This was the home to the Contemporary wing. If you had asked me earlier that day, I would have told you that I hate modern and contemporary art. This exhibit changed my mind.

The Contemporary wing opened up to a huge, very noticeable piece - a giant balloon dog. Of course, it wasn't actually a balloon but I just thought the piece was so fun, I had to get a snapshot of it. At first glance, the room didn't seem to have anything else that was too spectacular. The same artist had a few other pieces, but these looked so much less impressive. One looked like an inflatable raft stuck between the rungs of a ladder. Another was a floatie that that had been pushed through a chain link fence. At first I thought this was really dumb too... until I started thinking that there was no way it should still be inflated. So I read the descriptions of the pieces and saw that they weren't floaties or inflatable rafts... they were actually created from metal and paint. They looked so realistic, and at that moment I had such a realization of how amazing this artist really was.

On the back wall of the room, there were also some giant works that looked like some photo/art collage mixes. Just like the "inflatable" pieces, I didn't think much of them... until I realized that there was no a single photograph - they were all painted. I'd never seen such a realistic looking painting before. I spent the rest of the time in the exhibit trying to figure out what was a photo and what was a painting. They were all paintings.

That room had a few other gems, some you may recognize from some little old artist that goes by Andy Warhol...


I hate to say this, but I was much less impressed by his pieces after seeing the hyper-realistic ones. They just made his seem simple in comparison.

The rest of the contemporary wing was fun, even if it was a little less memorable. It made me realize that contemporary art is all about showing you something ordinary in an extraordinary way. Maybe it portrays a feeling or sensation - just like the twisted bed reminded me of sleepless nights and my fits of insomnia. Maybe it was just showing a sense of humor - like the giant litter box.

Since the contemporary wing was so fun, I decided to go check out the modern art exhibits. There were some pieces that seemed very similar to the contemporary wing. This giant comb was still fitting of style of ordinary-in-an-extraordinary way.

But then I turned a corner and remembered why I dislike modern art so much...

I will never ever understand the artistic quality of a blank canvas. Ever. My theory with art is that if I feel like I can go home and make it rather quickly - it probably shouldn't be a in a museum.

I thought the blank canvas was bad... until I saw the piece that looked like a painting that was just wrapped up for shipping. For some reason, this one was even worse in my opinion. For all I know, it was wrapped up to be shipped out for another museum. I'm sure that a curator would have some explanation about the artistic merits of modern art, but I just find it all pretty unbelievable.

The rest of the museum had a lot of beautiful exhibits as well. I went through them a little quicker so I don't have specific comments or pictures for you. Honestly, the museum is huge so it was hard to take everything in. I definitely would love to make a few more trips back there and maybe even bring my sketchbook. It was one of the things I really wished I had on this trip, and sketching while in a museum is something I haven't done yet. I know it's really common for artists and students so I definitely would love to give it a try and see what I'll be inspired to come up with.

So what do you do when you're done looking at art? Well, you go check out some smelly tar pits of course! But - that's for next time.

Week of July 3rd 2011: Tim Burton Exhibit

Somehow in the course of 3 or so hours, I came up with enough material for 3 posts... this is the first.

Upon hearing that I was going to be spending a week in LA, Kevin emailed me a link about the Tim Burton exhibit that was taking place at the LA County Museum of Art. I'd heard about it already, but the email was a great reminder to see one of the coolest museum exhibits I've been to (probably rivaled only by the Walt Disney Family museum as the two had a similar format). I apologize in advance for the lack of pictures - it was a strict no photo zone. For those who know me in real life, I bought a few coffee table books from the exhibit and you're welcome to flip through them next time you visit. For those who don't know me, but love Tim Burton - the books can be purchased here and on Amazon (yes, they are two different books).

The exhibit was a collection of Tim Burton's sketches, sculptures, paintings, short films and movie props. It was incredible. You started the exhibit by walking through a giant clown mouth which leads you into a sort of preview room where you can see a few sculptures and sketches that prepare you for what is coming.

From there, the exhibit shows you his early life. They explain how his creative mind was always restless in Burbank and from a young age, entered (and won) drawing competitions until he was able to attend Cal Arts, but this is all stuff you can find on Wikipedia. The exhibit continued into a large room with a zig zag wall in the middle creating a multitude of surfaces. Each one was covered with paintings, sketches and cells of some of Burton's early works including Frankenweenie (which is now being made into a full motion picture) and Vincent (the story of a young boy who wanted to be like Vincent Price or Edgar Allen Poe).

The galleries then led into one of the most popular Tim Birton creations - yes, The Nightmare Before Christmas. Even before it got to that point, you could see that he had spent years dreaming up that world. There were so many sketches of grinning skulls, blue stiched women, striped snakes, and creepy clowns. The rooms that focused on the iconic movie showed more of the individual sulptures.

Last year, just before Halloween, I bought the movie on Blu-ray. I had figured it would have revealed some flaws in the clay sculptures that came from a time before computer animation was as big as it is now. However, it just showed how much detail went into each figurine. Seeing them in person, I can verify that they really are perfect. They are just so precise with so much thought going into every character, every scene.

The rest of the exhibit really focused on a lot of his movies and the artwork behind them. There were costumes from Batman (including the Catwoman suit, the first of two that I would see that month) and Edward Scissorhands, there were melted puppets from Willy Wonka, and just so many story board drawings. I think my favorite thing was a sketch from Sweeney Todd that even looked like Johnny Depp.

The whole exhibit was really inspiring. No, I don't plan on sitting in a dark room and sketching skeletons and clowns - but seeing a real artist who spent his life bringing his unique vision to life, reminds me that I love to create too and that I need to get back to that.

July 2011

July was a really great month for me last year. When I was working on the chronology page of this blog, I also decided to start listing the things I plan to write about and July had a ton. July really was about new things.

In the beginning of the month I decided to take a road trip to visit my family, by myself, for no special occaission. I hadn't really done that before.There was something so nice about having the freedom to stop and do what I wanted. Whether it was making a pit stop at the beach to go jet skiing, or stopping by a little factory to buy new sandals - the whole trip was on my schedule. I know my family also really appreciated me taking the time to visit them when there wasn't really a special occasion. From my Aunt to my parents to my brothers, I could tell they appreciated me finally making good on my promises to come visit.

But July wasn't only about visiting family, I had a lot of friends who were wondering when I was going to see them as well. For over a year, my friend in Washington D.C. had been asking when I was going to see them so after Elissa moved to New York, I decided to make one big East Coast trip. The fun thing about visiting people is that it's really nice being someone's guest and they're usually really excited to show you what's amazing about their city... but they have lives too so you also get a lot of time to explore on your own and I loved that. Whether it was boating or going to a baseball game with company or explore towers, memorials and museums on my own - I loved every bit of my East Coast trip.

I didn't go anywhere exotic (in fact, quite the opposite as going to SoCal is always a little like going home), but the trips were so remarkable. Whether the new thing was giving myself the freedom to take a trip on my own or or being a complete tourist in some of the biggest cities in the country, there were a lot of them. There is something special and important between finding that balance between independence, family, and friendship; between exciting new adventures and comforting old ones.

Trying to pick just a few snapshots from my adventures just reminded me how much I did that month and I can't wait to share it with you.

Week of March 21st 2011: National Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam)

After the Van Gogh museum, we went to the National Rijksmuseum. The museum was under construction so only parts of it were open. The museum puts you on a pretty natural progression through Dutch works. The first few rooms showcase paintings of Dutch history and famous battles and also include some artifacts. From there, the museum leads you into a room filled with giant, beautiful antique doll houses.  The first floor ends with some Dutch ceramics which is known for its blue and white patterns. I remember a Dutch friend of mine having several ceramics of that style in her home when we were kids.

The second floor was more focused on art and paintings. The first couple of rooms had a variety of still life paintings. I had never thought these were that interesting before but seeing them up close was really remarkable. The paintings were so detailed and realistic, it was pretty incredible. The museum then led you into the rooms with paintings by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Jan Steen and many other famous Dutch painting. However, they still didn’t have the Girl with the Pearl Earring. Spoiler alert – I’ve been to a ton of museums this year and still haven’t seen it so finally I gave up and did a search. It’s in the Hague. I came so close but didn’t go to the right part of the Netherlands…

The last room had Rembrandt’s most famous painting, the Night Watch. It took up a whole wall in the room and there were little guides all around that told you things to look for. It was really cool to find some of the secrets of the painting. One of the most interesting facts was that the painting used to be even larger but was cut to make it fit in a former home.

The museum isn’t particularly large. I know it is being remodeled so it is possible that not all of the paintings are on display. However, I really liked the layout. The museum guided you through room by room and it was very linear. While it is nice to openly explore some museums, it’s also really easy to miss exhibits that way. I probably wouldn’t have tried to see the still life paintings if I didn’t have to walk through them, but they ended up being some of the works I remember the most.

Week of March 21st 2011: The Van Gogh Museum (Amsterdam)

I think there are few things more enjoyable than when you get to use a piece of knowledge you once learned and didn't appreciate at the time. I've mentioned before that my art classes in junior high were filled with information on famous impressionist, cubist, modern, classical, and pointillism paintings. The body of knowledge we learned in those three years was extensive.

However, I always hated that we were told to copy famous works of art. While it helped me to learn about them, it seemed stifling to our young creative minds to have to copy something that had already been made. We were then graded on how accurately we could finish the masterpiece in the one hour we were allotted. An hour was never enough time and very few people did well in the class.

Since I've spent much of the last year in and out of museums, I've often wondered whether my opinion was right or the teacher's was. Was the art history lesson worth the sacrifice of freedom of expression?

Well, I found my answer in the Van Gogh museum. The museum itself is pretty remarkable. It is laid out as a timeline of his painting career,  which only lasted for ten years. It went through where he drew his inspirations from and then which artists were inspired by his work. We were led from room to room and watched how his paintings changed as he became more skilled and responded to changes in his life.

The most wonderful thing about the museum was how imperfect Van Gogh's paintings were. Many of them lacked perspective or showed impossible angles, the strokes were rough and uneven, and in many cases the canvas was still showing. Yet all of the paintings were still remarkable. It was the imperfections that made them so unique. It became clear how his work wasn't appreciated during his time but is now celebrated for being so vibrant and distinct.

On one wall, there were two paintings of the same image. It was of a woman working at a well. The first painting was by one of the artists Van Gogh drew his inspiration from, and the second was by Van Gogh himself. Although they were the same image, they could not have been more different when it came to style and technique. One was done in fine, exact detail, and the other showed Van Gogh's rough, expressive brush strokes - and they were both beautiful.

So it got me thinking about those art classes. Even though our teacher was very appreciative of Van Gogh's work, she missed the point of his art. He never wanted to copy other artists - he wanted to be inspired by them, but to make art in his own way. If we had been taught about the different art masterpieces and then asked to paint something that was inspired by one of those paintings, I think there would have been a greater lesson there. Grading young students on how well they can copy art is stifling and uninspiring, but encouraging then to draw inspiration from masterpieces and create their own works of art - then you are really teaching something.

Week of March 14th 2011: The Grand Trianon and Marie Antoinette's Estate (Versailles, France)

Although I had been to Versailles before, I hadn't wandered too far from the Palace and the main gardens. While the Palace is extremely beautiful, I wasn't too excited to go back. It tends to be very crowded and seeing extravagant room after extravagant room gets very tiring. However, Kevin had never been and I knew it was a must see for a trip to Paris.

Since I am a notorious over planner, I spent the week before my trip trying to figure out what I wanted to see. While talking about my plans and the day trip to Versailles with friends and co-workers, I started hearing the same thing over and over again - check out the rest of the gardens and Marie Antoinette's estate.

After a couple of days in Paris, Kevin and I (joined also by Lindsay), went on our day trip to Versailles. I was lucky that they felt similarly to me about the Palace. While it is incredible to see, it's very hard to spend a lot of time in and soon we were on a lovely stroll through the gardens to the Petite Trianon, Marie Antoinette's home away from the Palace.

I had been mostly looking forward to seeing Marie Antoinette’s Hamlet which is located in the gardens behind the Petite Trianon. The Hamlet looks like something that fell out of a Disney movie… in fact, I’m pretty certain that Belle’s house was designed after one of them. Lindsay and I had a blast looking at all of the little structures and picking which one each of us would live in. I loved the one with the balcony and spiral staircase. Lindsay made a wonderful tour guide too. She explained that each of the buildings had a different purpose and acted as a different room in a house so there was a kitchen, coop, bedroom, etc.

We continued our walk around the gardens (and by that I mean we got terribly lost… like, got to the end of the estate and had to back track) until we got back to the Petite Trianon. We decided to walk through it and I really enjoyed the relative (relative to the Palace) modesty of it. However, like the rest of Versailles, there was still quite a bit of extravagance. I was pretty entertained by the over sized billiards table we came across. We all tried to figure out how people a foot shorter than us would be able to play on it. There was also a caption saying that they had been planning a renovation the dining room that would allow the table to be stored in the kitchen so that the servants could cover it with food and then raise it up through a hole to the floor above where the diners would be waiting.  

After that, we checked out the Grand Trianon as well but our feet were aching and there weren’t many rooms open to the public so there wasn’t a whole lot to see. Lindsay had said there was a blue and gold theater somewhere nearby but after looking for a bit we realized it was way out of our way and decided to skip it since it was getting late and Kevin and I still want to go to the Louvre (our 2 day museum pass was expiring!!). That’s the problem with short trips – too much to see and never enough time. Lindsay and I didn’t even get to take Kevin up on his offer to rent a row boat for us so we could paddle through the canals! Next time…

So, if you go to Versailles, don’t get caught up in the extravagance of the palace – make your way around to the rest of the estate. It may sound cheesy, but I would also recommend watching Sophia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette. A lot of the film was filmed in Versailles and it will give you a bit of the history behind what you’re seeing.

Week of March 14th 2011: Les Invalides (Paris)

I didn’t really know what Les Invalides was before this trip to Paris. On my first trip, I had seen it on a map and gone past it but I just thought it was a big park a few blocks away from the Eiffel Tower. This is what you get when your tour guide tries to distract you so that you can have an epic moment of realizing you are right underneath the famous landmark.

So – after seeing Musee Rodin, we knew we would pass it on our way to have lunch near the Eiffel Tower (something we knew was incredibly cheesy but so is riding a Cable Car and I try to do that every now and then because I live in San Francisco and I can). Once we found a map, we saw that Les Invalides was made up of several buildings containing such things as World War museum, the church of St. Louis, and Napoleon’s Tomb.

Napoleon’s Tomb was the first thing we decided to see as it is clearly marked by a grand entrance with large gold doors. In fact, the doors are so large that they have smaller, more reasonable doors cut out of them. When you go through the doors, you are actually on the second floor of the tomb where you can look down onto it from above. Now, if you’ve never heard the term “Napoleon Complex,” just seeing a picture of his casket should explain everything for you.

After the Tomb, we went to go see the military museum. It was a really cool collection of military armor and weapons ranging from several different countries. It was definitely cool to see the progression of several tools and weapons. I probably took about 20 cannon pictures yet for some reason I didn't upload any of them to Picassa...

 From there, Kevin and I split ways. Since we were both really hungry, we decided he would go see the World War museum (because guys love war and stuff) and I went to check out the church of St. Louis since he is the namesake of the high school I attended. The church was very beautiful but there were a lot of signs discouraging visitors and photography so I decided to be respectful. I figured Kevin wasn’t done with the museum so I went to go meet up with him.

Not surprisingly, he wasn't too far into the World War museum so I looked at the end of WWI and then we moved onto the WWII exhibit. The exhibit was really well done and I thought it gave a very unbiased and detailed  history on the war. As someone who didn't pay enough attention to history in high school, it was interesting to see more about what actually happened.

Week of March 14th 2011: Musee Rodin (Paris)

I’ve been in love with The Thinker since I was in elementary school. This may become evident in future posts, but I was really lucky to go to private schools up until college. Because of this, my education was filled with a lot of fine arts and I always gravitated to the art classes. At my elementary school, it was well known that the 8^th graders got to make a replica Thinker sculpture and that a good portion of the year was spent studying Rodin and making sketches of his work in order to understand the sculpture. I was so excited to do this and then my 8^th grade year was the first time they didn’t do the project. Since then, I’ve had such a big fascination with the statue, the project I never got to work on it.

So I knew I had to go to the Musee Rodin on this trip to Paris. The museum is mostly outdoors in a garden surrounding a chateau. The most famous of Rodin’s sculptures are hidden around the garden. Our first stop, was the Thinker statue where we took our stereotypical touristy, pensive pictures in front of the statue. The statue is well placed near the edge of the garden so you can see the dome of Les Invalides behind it.

We continued around the garden seeing other famous works like Rodin’s Muse and a fountain with several statues around it. Eventually we made our way full circle through the garden and came across another very famous piece, the Gates of Hell. This isn't the best picture but this piece of artwork is truly incredible. It is so detailed and large, I can only imagine how much work went into it. I also did not know until I saw it that many pieces, such as the Thinker, were created as part of the Gates of Hell and then became more famous on their own. 

In the middle of the garden, is an old house. The house stores more of Rodin's delicate, easy to stain marble pieces. It also holds several paintings of his as well - basically, anything you wouldn't want kept in a garden. I took so many pictures in here but a few pieces stood out. There was one of a large hand that was incredibly detailed. I also really loved this passionate scene between a man and a woman. It was a little frustrating because I wanted to get a good look at it but it was blocked by a tour group who wasn't even looking at that particular piece. That kind of thing really gets on my nerve, be respectful of the other visitors. Eventually, they moved on and I was able to get a snapshot.

I'd love to return to this museum when it's a little nicer out. The weather was a little chillier than an SF winter day so it was tolerable but I could only imagine sitting on the lawns on a summer day with a sketchbook and really enjoying the unique set up of the museum.