L'aiguille de Cléopâtre. Cleopatra's Needle. Egypt's gift to France in 1826. (Originally stood on one side of the entry to Ramesses II at Luxor, which I visited back in 2008
Sylvie was out grocery shopping when I arrived. So I hung out in the courtyard with her building's super trying to chat in hand gestures until she returned through the courtyard!
I still had another two hours to kill before Sylvie was finished with work, so I spent some time exploring the Montparnasse Cemetery looking for Baudelaire's grave. I didn't manage to find it, but I did find...
The museum was closing soon, so I just admired the I.M. Pei designed pyramid outside. I according to Wikipedia, "the structure...reaches a height of 21.6 metres; its square base has sides of 35 metres (115 ft)."
If you take 35 and divide it by 21.6, you get:
35 / 16 = 1.62037037037
After admiring the inside, I walked around the outside perimeter. Here's one of Notre Dame's famous gargoyles! Gargoyles are used to throw rainwater away from the mortar-seams of a building, preventing erosion. From gargouille, the Old French word for ‘throat,’ because water is channeled through the "throat" of the animal. This is the same word that we get our modern word "gargle!"
Close up of the condemned, in chains, being led to hell. I like how there's a devil at both the front, and end of the line. The guy in the back is so excited to shepherd everyone to hell. He's like the worst camp counselor of all time.
"It represents the Last Judgement as described in the Gospel of Saint Matthew.
On the lower lintel, the dead are being resuscitated from their tombs. Just above that, on the upper lintel, the archangel Michael is weighing their souls according to the lives they led on earth and the love they showed to God and to men. The chosen people are led to the left towards Heaven (to Christ’s right) and the condemned are lead to the right, to hell, by a devil."
