Honor, or Something Like It: The French Military Museum

So, Erin has graciously allowed me to handle this blog entry. No parentheses, just straight Gideon. And a journey through France's military history.

The museum is (roughly speaking) 4 different areas: Napoleon's tomb, arms from the 14th to the 16th century, Louis the XV to Napoleon III, and the modern period--- WWI and WWII. Took me about 3 hours to get through... could have taken 4. Lots going on.

First things first: Napoleon's tomb. He was dug up by his nephew, Napoleon III, from the island of St. Helena. Since his entire claim to fame was his uncle, he pulled out all of the stops. The tomb basically deifies Napoleon; the bas reliefs around the ornate sarcophagus show Napoleon as the ultimate man: law giver, leader, carrier of revolutionary ideals, peace maker between Church and State, etc. I suppose that if my uncle's name gifted me the nation of France, I'd be a huge fan too.

The ancient arms were amazing. In short, France has been making quality swords since the bronze age, seeing Ottoman swords from the crusades is a bit odd, and full suits of armor are awesome in person. My favorite moment was a display where they tried to side-step the "vagaries of history" in explaining how France wound up with entire collections of Italian Renaissance weapons.

This was the beginning of some of the "awkward" moments. For example, did you know that Yorktown was "Franco-American" victory? I knew that France played a big role. We couldn't have won without the French blockade, but it was strange for mento realize that the French played a much larger role in Washington's victory (and our independence) than I realized.

However, the awkward moments from there on in were purely French. After some incredibly limited criticism of Napoleon (specifically regarding Spain and Russia), they them go on to practically worship him. No serious discussions of Napoleon's political oppression. No discussion of Napoleon's basically killing the Republic either.

Similarly, the nationalist movement, which arose after France's defeat during the Franco-Prussian war and was virulently anti-Semitic, was discussed as a cause of the harsh post-war treaty imposed on France. But there's no real discussion of the Dreyfus affair.

And the harsh Versailles treaty? Wilson's fault. And the Germans were never serious about complying any way. The latter notion is a stretch; the former was a complete fiction. Clemenceau was no fan of a moderate treaty.

Oh, and WWII? It was a failure of civilian leadership. And the French army fought with honor. Never mind that the French military was considered the best in the world. Never mind that Leo Blum wanted to halt the fascist takeover of Spain, which would have put a cramp in Hitler's step, and was stopped by military leaders. Never mind it was the military leaders wanted the Maginot line. It was a civilian leadership failure.

The museum was silent on the Indochina war; colonialism was generally discussed as "exploration" anyway. Another personal favorite.

In short, the museum was quite good. But it was a trip. Worth a discussion on our own historical memory lapses.

The Louvre, etc.

Wow. I understand why everyone says Paris is so awesome - because it is.

I can't get passed how easy it is to get around. The metro is so fast and efficient and easy to navigate. And everything is beautiful! Each street and alley looks like a photo. All the buildings are gorgeous. All of them.

(I agree with all of the above. Paris is simply fantastic. And I think it's important that everyone goes. That way, when you're in New York, you know that you really are in the greatest City in the world. I kid, I kid.)

The last three days have been packed. We visited the Louvre twice, the Tuileries Garden, the Orsay, the Orangerie, Notre Dame, Saint Chapelle, the Left Bank Book Sellers and a bunch of stuff in between (like the best falafel in the world). We also managed to pack our faces full of bread, cheese, macarons, pastries, quiche and wine.

The Louvre was great, but we had to divide and conquer. There is no way to see everything in one visit so we split up and took two hours to see the important stuff.

(The Louvre is amazing. But it's also an incredible showcase of the paradox of France. Yes, it is beautiful, but this exists due to an oppressive monarch who wanted a nice house. The stuff is great, but some of it is from colonial/Napoleonic adventures. The French also feel a need to showcase the glories of past civilizations, but in the light of being a successor civilization. It's jarring to American sensibilities.)

The Orsay Museum picks up where the Louvre leaves off: Impressionism through Realism.

(PHENOMENAL. Here the French have real cause to gloat. The Orsay is a former train station, so the flow is great and the light is fantastic. And the art... Almost totally French. And all of it is priceless. Favorite museum so far.)

The Orangerie continues with Pointilism and Cubism.

The Orangerie, though smallest, was my favorite so far. It houses Monet's Water Lilies. Monet painted the Water Lilies specifically for this exhibit but never saw it installed. Water Lilies covers the entire first floor. The best part, however, was downstairs. The lower level covers Renoir, Degas, Picasso, Utrillo and a number of others; many of whom were developing their style Montmartre.

(In short, we are staying in the neighborhood where the modern art movement was born. Not bad for a girl from San Jose and a boy from Maine.)

So far we've had great luck with the language. Neither of us speaks French, but Rick Steves' book has enough terms, phrases and suggested behavior to get by. Plus, most of the waiters and waitresses we've interacted with have been friendly and speak quite a bit of English.

(Who knew that English was the lingua franca of our times?)

We met up with a couple of good friends, Mike and Nicole, for dinner and drinks yesterday evening. They're staying close to Notre Dame and have rented a little apartment for the few days they're going to be here. Mike and Gideon have big plans for the army museum while Nicole and I will take a break and shop a little. Paris has a couple department stores unlike anything I've ever seen. They're huge, ornate and expensive.

(I was shocked, just shocked to discover that the ladies didn't want to spend 3 hours in a museum learning about Renaissance armor and Napoleonic battle formations.)

If I had the time (and a car) I'd visit the Puces St. Ouen flea market held out in the 'burbs. The flea market dates to medieval times when peasants would sell items discarded by the rich. Today, the market has more than 2,000 vendors.

Paris: Day One

Yeesh. Having access to wifi and taking photos with my iPhone sure makes this easy.

Today we rolled out of bed, ate the continental breakfast and went straight back upstairs for a nap. We managed to get out for a few hours to walk around the neighborhood.

We're staying in Montmartre. It's the home to the Moulin Rouge, Paris' highest point (Sacré-Cœur) and a lot of young artist/hipsters.

(It was also home to some major activities of the 1871 Paris Commune. Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, and Mao have written extensively about the Commune, and it serves as the primary case study on how to structure a state after a successful revolution. Specifically, the lesson drawn was that once the revolution is kicked off, the revolutionaries must act quickly, decisively, and crush your enemies. Hence... The 20th Century. - GB)

We started at the Sacred Heart Basilica. It's a beautiful cathedral that was finished a little less than a century ago. It was built shortly after France lost the Franco Prussian War. Although built recently, it looks ancient.

(I think my favorite part was all of the mosaics of Jesus with no shirt on--- AKA Gun Show Jesus. According to our guide book, the church was built in repentance for the actions of the commune--- and for the tens of thousands killed when the French military, supported by the occupying Germans, destroyed the Commune. Nearby was another church built on the remains of an ancient Roman temple to Mars.)

Following that we went to the Dali museum and Picasso's studio (Le Bateau-Lavoir). We strolled past the Moulin de la Galette - the setting for Monet's famous painting. We also saw La Maison Rose - once frequented by Picasso and Gertrude Stein.

(All of the impressionist artists lived out here--- the rent was cheap and the booze was tax free. Earlier, Van Gogh lived out here as well. It's quite the neighborhood and featured quite a bit in the recent movie "Midnight in Paris".)

We stopped briefly for a couple sandwiches and a pastry. Even the touristy sandwiches are made the the best bread! I think the next five days are going to be full of wine, cheese and heavily spiced meat.

(True story. Though, I will say how impressed I am with the fruits of the American culinary revolution. We can get bread in Sacramento that comes close to what we're eating now. I suspect we couldn't say that 10 years ago.)

Tomorrow: the Louvre, Orsay and the Tuileries Garden.

(In short, my countdown to the military museum continues. But I'm looking forward to our picnic in the gardens near the Louvre.)

We have achieved Backyard

Forgive the brevity of this post. We're packing for Europe and my thoughts are elsewhere.

FORTUNATELY, Blogger has a handy app and I'll be blogging from Paris, Brussels, Bruges and Amsterdam!