Month: June 2019

Now that we had seen most of the major attractions, we were ready to discover some off-beat attractions on our last day in Paris. 

In one of the brochures on walking tours, we spotted a tour titled, HIDDEN GEMS AND SECRET PARIS — a local Parisian shares hidden treasures that tourist maps will not show.

Those of you who have read my post on Valparaiso know that I love walking tours. They give such a good local inside knowledge about the landmarks and culture, people, food, and local idiosyncrasies. And usually, the guides are very amusing.

The meeting point for the tour was by the horse statue outside the Louvre. 

About eight of us were waiting for the guide when a young man arrived in a pink vest. He looked around, waited for a few minutes to see if anyone else was joining, folded his pink jacket, and put it away, announcing it was hideous.

“Okay. My name is Nicole. I am your guide for Hidden Gems and Secret Paris. I am a student, and this is my way of making some extra money for travel. So at the end of the tour, pay based on how much you liked the tour, i. e. generously.”

Actually he didn’t say that. He forgot. But we knew the deal.

Today’s post is mostly Nicole’s narration.

Arc of Carrousel

“We will start from right here. All of you probably know about the Arc de Gaulle but may not be about the triumphal arc right in front of you. It is called the Arc of Carrousel. Napoleon built it in 1806–1808 to honor his army and celebrate their victories. It used to be the thing back then, to build something to honor the armies.

It is aligned with the obelisk of the Concorde, the centerline of the Champs-Elysées avenue, and the Arc de Gaulle (also known as the Great Arc of Triumph). When it was built, Napoleon didn’t like it. He thought it was not grand enough for his army. So he built another one, the Great Arc of Triumph.”

Obelisk of Concorde

“By the way, do you know the story about the obelisk in Concorde?” 

We all shook our heads.

“The obelisk in the square of Concorde is one of two 3,000 years old obelisks that originally stood outside Luxor Temple in Egypt. They were given to France by Muhammad Ali Pasha, Ruler of Ottoman, in exchange for a French mechanical clock. But, unfortunately, it took a French ship more than a year to bring it to France.

After the obelisk was taken, the mechanical clock provided in exchange was discovered to be faulty. King Louis-Phillip said to the Ottoman ruler to keep the second obelisk. It still stands outside of Luxor Temple. And so does the worthless clock, in a clock tower somewhere in Egypt. And ironically, it is still not working.”

Metro Stations

We were herded out from the Louvre complex to the entrance of a subway.

“You see this entrance to the subway. It is green and subtle. The same architect designed all old subway entrances, and they all look the same. But they allowed the new artists to design new entrances. This one is designed by an artist famous for his work with glass made from volcanic lava. Which one you like better?”

“The old one,” we all said in unison.

Comedie Francaise

Just opposite the new subway entrance was the Comédie-Française theatre.

“Comédie-Française is one of the few state theatres in France. It was established in 1995 to honor French playwright, actor, and poet, Molière, widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language. In 1673, during a production of his final play, The Imaginary Invalid (about a rich man who stages his death while his relatives fight around him for his inheritance), Molière died on stage after playing the last scene of the last play. Each year the theatre holds free performances on the anniversary of his death.”

The Royal Palace

“From the theatre, we will be walking to the garden side of the Royal Palace, which is now the seat of the Ministry of Culture, the Conseil d’État, and the Constitutional Council.

Cardinal Richelieu originally built the Royal Palace in 1639. He built it because he wanted to marry the queen(not sure which one he was referring to). Upon his death in 1642, the palace became the property of the King and acquired the new name Palais-Royal. After Louis XIII died the following year, it became the home of the Queen Mother Anne of Austria and her young sons Louis XIV and Philippe, Duc d’Anjou, and her advisor Cardinal Mazarin.

Louis XIV felt unsafe in the Royal Palace and gave it to his brother, who turned it into Las Vegas with all kinds of gambling and prostitution. They became the social center of the capital. The gathering at the Palais-Royal was famed all around the capital as well as all of France. At these parties, the crème de la crème of French society came to see and be seen.

Have a look at the trees in the garden. I used to come here as a child, and for a long time, I kept on thinking that the trees are square.”

Place Des Victoires

Walking through several streets, we reached an open circular area. It was, in fact, a Square.

“This is Royal Square. Paris has five of them. Kings usually commissioned these squares as a symbol of the King’s grandeur.

Although Place de la Concorde is the biggest and most popular, Place Des Victoires is special. Calm and graceful, the circular shape of the square was at the time of its construction an architectural revolution.

In the center is the statue of King Louis XIV, whose place was dedicated in honor of his military victories. This statue has besides been melted during the French Revolution to make guns! It was rebuilt in the mid 19th century.

Now notice something. The horse’s legs are up, which usually means that the rider died in a battle. However, Louis XIV never went to any battle let alone die in one. So this is a lie.”

Place des Petits-Pères

We stood in front of a church, and Nicole started his commentary. 

“We French like to wage wars which we usually lose. But then we bring back souvenirs. For example, this church is built from the bricks looted from Rome.”

Nicole promised to show us an arcade built to provide a safe and attractive place for shopping in the olden days. So he took us to the most beautiful one.

There he gathered us in front of a Café and told us the story of Eugène François Vidocq.

“Vidocq was a criminal whose life story inspired several writers, including Victor Hugo, Edgar Allan Poe, and Honoré de Balzac. He was so good that the police asked him to help them catch other criminals. Thus, Vidocq is regarded as the father of modern criminology and the French police department. He is also regarded as the first private detective.

Above this cafe is a theatre. Vidocq was a patron of that theatre. In those days, this theatre regularly presented crime stories in the form of melodramas.”

Our tour ended in the Royal Palace gardens. We walked from there to Notre Dame and watched it up and close. It was majestic. Of course, it was heavily fenced since the fires, but hundreds of tourists were still taking photos in front of it.

We walked the famous street Ile Saint-Louis, had lunch at St Regis, and stood in the line to have Paris’s famous Berthillon gelato.

We came back to the hotel to have a well-deserved rest. In the evening, there was only one thing left to do — climb the Eiffel Tower.

It took us only twenty minutes to climb 700 stairs to get to the second level, but three hours in different queues to get to the top by lift.

We got back just in time to see the midnight light show. A perfect setting to wish my darling husband Happy Birthday.

Thank you for reading my travel stories. They were no Gulliver Travels but I had a great time writing them knowing that some of you are waiting for them and will keep pestering me until I do. In the future, I intend to write more posts based on my previous travels as well as forthcoming.

Even if you see Versailles in photos, you are mesmerized by its grandeur and splendor. But, then, you wonder at the extravagance.

You also wonder how much planning it would have taken to design and build such a huge complex. How meticulous would have been the building process? Yet Versailles construction was a long process full of hesitations, unfinished projects, and false starts.

In the beginning, Versailles was just a hunting lodge build by Louis XIII. Louis XIV fell in love with this small but old-fashioned palace and made it his permanent home, but only after major renovations.

For the next forty years, Louis XIV lived in the midst of a permanent building site. Versailles was enhanced and first converted to a sumptuous palace fit for a king. Then it was made the seat of government complete with residence for court officials and servants. Later a magnificent chapel, a theatre, and grand stables were added to it. At least five kings spent an unbelievable amount of money to bring it to the stage it is today.

Led by our daughter, my husband and I left our hotel in Paris early enough to get to the train to Versailles. Our daughter had pre-booked the tickets, a wise move, because the line to buy tickets was so long that it would have taken us half of the day to get in. As a result, we were one of the first fifty people to get inside the palace.

The palace tour started with a short movie in the first room. The movie tells the history of the palace and the monarchs who lived there. After watching a short movie about the palace, our daughter gathered us (my husband and me) in a corner and declared, “We are going to the Hall of Mirrors first while it is still empty. Otherwise, there is no point to get in so early.”

The Hall of Mirrors, the most famous room in the Palace. It was built to replace a large terrace and it opens onto the Versailles garden. It is also the most extravagantly decorated room. It was used as the ballroom, its purpose was to illustrate the power of the absolutist monarch Louis XIV.

We ran past the room after room, corridors after corridors to reach the Hall of Mirrors. I was a bit reluctant to run past magnificently decorated rooms, but I was glad we did. When we reached the Hall of Mirrors, we were spellbound. But, most importantly, it was almost empty.

You don’t have to see any more to be convinced why French Revolution started. The Hall of Mirrors was the proof of royal extravagance.

The King and Queen’s Apartments 

The other most impressive room after the Hall of Mirrors is the King and Queen’s apartments. The King’s apartment is in the heart of the palace and is predominantly red in color, while the Queen’s apartment is golden.

The King and Queen’s apartments were laid out on the same design, each suite having seven rooms. Both suites had ceilings painted with scenes from mythology; the King’s ceilings featured male figures, the Queen’s featured females.

Mesdames Apartments

The other very lavish apartments were Louis XV’s daughters’ apartments. They were in line with the King and Queen’s apartments. 

The apartments were turned into museum rooms but were not open for people for many years due to the restoration work. Luckily, when we were there, they were recently opened. They are now restored to their original condition as princely apartments. 

Mesdames of France, the six daughters of Louis XV as they were known, lived there since 1752. Adélaïde and Victoire, remained ther until the Revolution. Neither of them was married, and they both lived to old age.

Gardens of Versailles

If I thought the palace was spectacular, I was blown away by the gardens. Spread over 800 hectares of land, they are landscaped in classic French style. Only an aerial view can show the immensity of the gardens.

Versailles gardens have several groves hidden between the woods. These groves are decorated with fountains, vases, and statues, accessed by secret paths are designed by Andre Le Notre. 

The groves brought surprise and fantasy to Louise XIV’s guests and his courtiers. Frequent parties were thrown there and the guests were entertained with music and fountain shows. 

There were also theatre performances and gambling in open-air drawing rooms exclusively dedicated to entertainment and amusement.

The Grand Trianon

In the northwest of the gardens, there is another palace. 

Commissioned by Louis XIV for his mistress Marquise of Montespan, the Grand Trianon was called Porcelain Trianon because of its white and blue ceramic décor. 

It quickly deteriorated and was replaced in 1687–1688 by the current palace.

Napoleon lived at Trianon with his second wife Marie Louise of Austria. The Trianon is very much in use even now. Many state guests (including Queen Elizabeth II) are housed in the Trianon during their state visit to France.

I liked this little palace. It was not as magnificent as Versailles, but it was peaceful. I sat in the verandah and watched the sky. It was much lower and of perfect blue. I thought about my own home and realized I was ready to go back. You can only stay away from home for so long.

We spent the last day in Paris discovering some hidden gems. I will write about them in my next post.

Louvre is the largest art museum globally in terms of area (72,735 sq. mt.) and second-largest in terms of art collection (the largest art collection is in Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia).

Louvre has over 35,000 works of art, which are displayed in about 16 kilometers of galleries. Even if you spent three seconds looking at each work of art, it would take you three months to see everything in the museum.

We had put aside a full day for Louvre, having no idea that it will take us half a day to get inside. The line was a mile long from the front entrance through the glass prism in the complex compound.

Luckily Louvre has a second entrance that many people don’t know about. It is through the underground shopping center. The line was much shorter there, but it still took us an hour to get inside when we got through the security.

To our dismay, we had to line again—this time to buy the tickets. 

By the time we got in, it was one pm. 

Lucky for us, it was Friday. On Fridays, the museum is open till ten pm.

We spent seven hours inside. 

I was more impressed with the history and architect of the building than the thousands of artwork it was housing. 

The museum has one whole section devoted to the history and architecture of the Louvre. It starts with the old castle walls, which are well preserved in the underground portion of the museum.

Louvre was originally built as a fortress in the 12th century to protect Paris. Then, in the 16th century, it was reconstructed to serve as a royal palace. After that, it was built and rebuilt many times. Nearly every monarch expanded it.

I was particularly impressed by the art on the ceilings. 

In 1682, Louis XIV moved the royal residence to Versailles, and the Louvre became home to various art academies, offering regular exhibitions of its members’ works.

In 1793, after the French Revolution, the National Assembly opened Louvre as a museum with 537 paintings. But it had to be closed in 1796 due to structural problems with the building. Napoleon Bonaparte opened the museum in 1801 and expanded the collection.

It was Napoleon who created the foundations for the world-famous museum it is today. He enlarged its collection by bringing art from his military campaigns, private donations, and commissions he made.

In 1815, when Napoleon abdicated with the Treaty of Fontainebleau, almost 5,000 artworks were returned to their countries of origin. France was allowed to keep only a few hundred works. Since then, the collection had been enhanced many folds. 

We started with Egyptian, Greek, and Roman antiquities and Islamic Art Section.

I wanted to learn more about the objects I was seeing. There was a minimal description on the plaques beside the artifacts. We had rented the audio-guides, but they were frustrating. They didn’t work logically. We stopped fiddling with them and just watched the objects without bothering to learn about them. 

In a museum bookshop, I spotted a book that had images of all the key objects on display along with their description. I wanted to buy the book, but my husband refused. 

He wanted me to buy it on the way back from the museum or online when we get back home. His rationale was that we would be carrying the book all day with us. I wanted to buy it from the museum store to learn about what I was watching and to enjoy the museum. Reluctantly I agreed.

But imagine my anger when we discovered that the book was sold only in the museum and was not available in any bookstore or online. 

But the upside of the whole experience was that I made my husband promise me that, in the future, he will never stop me from buying anything. (Not a bad outcome if you ask me.)

Visting Mona Lisa

By the time we got to paintings galleries, we were pretty tired. But we were rejuvenated when we passed through the majestic galleries with massive paintings by old masters. An hour later, we got in line to see Mona Lisa.

Without question, the Louvre’s most famous work is Leonardo da Vinci’s, Mona Lisa. 

It has a whole room to itself. 

At least five security guards were managing the crowds. The barricades were keeping the crowds at least two meters away from the painting.

The painting itself was small — only 21 by 30 inches. And it was covered with bullet-proof glass. In 1911, it got stolen. But was recovered two years later. 

Most of the people were not interested in the painting but taking their photographs with it. I have never seen such weird selfie-poses in my life.

To me, Mona Lisa was faded and lusterless. 

The famous enigmatic smile was non-existent. 

There were many more impressive paintings in the gallery than Mona Lisa, but most people just ignored them.

I particularly liked four paintings of Hercules in the large gallery just outside the Mona Lisa’s room, in which the legendary mythical character was shown fighting different demons.

What I liked the most in the whole museum was the statue of Venus de Milo, one of the most famous ancient Greek sculptures.

It was said to be discovered by a peasant named Yorgos Kentrotas in 1820, inside a buried niche within the ancient city ruins of Milos. 

Created sometime between 130 and 100 BC, the statue is believed to depict Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty. 

It is a marble sculpture, slightly larger than life-size at 203 cm (6 ft 8 in) high. Its arms have been missing since its discovery.

The last area we visited was the two exhibition spaces that housed the 18th and 19th-century sculpture collections. 

These galleries are under the prism and receive a lot of daylight. They were built as part of the Grand Louvre project and were inaugurated in 1993 and 1994.

We spent seven hours inside. I hope you enjoyed my account of the Louvre.

The next post is about another equally impressive museum (nee palace).

Photo by redcharlie on Unsplash

We were going to spend the next four days in Paris. “Have you heard of Paris Syndrome?” my niece asked me over the phone.

“No. What is it?”

“Many people when visit Paris say that it didn’t live up to their expectations. So be mindful. Lower your expectations.”

“I shall.” I said that, but I was secretly hoping to see Paris as I had seen in ‘Devil Wears Prada.’ I wanted to see the dreamy wide boulevard where trees were lined with fairy lights, the one Anne Hathaway walked in the last scene of ‘Devil Wears Prada.’

Paris Syndrome A Reality

My husband and I took a train from London to get to Paris. When we arrived at the Paris terminal, I noticed the glass panels on the ceilings were not as clean as Paddington station in London. Okay. No big deal. They are probably due for a clean-up soon. 

We stood in line to get a taxi. The line was long and taxis were coming in very slowly. After an hour later we decided to walk to the main road where we would catch a cab quicker. We rolled our suitcases, walked to the front of a hotel and managed to hail a cab, but in the next ten minutes, it moved just ten inches and the meter clocked up ten Euros.

We got of the cab, paid ten Euros and walked back to the train station to get to the metro. The metro map mounted on a wall of the station was in French. We couldn’t figure out where we were. The big yellow arrow saying ‘You are here was missing. 

Thankfully another tourist came. He was as clueless as us but knew where we were on the map. We were at Gare du Nord, one of the big terminus metro stations. Paris mainline network has six large terminus stations and is not easy to figure out. Our hotel was just four kilometers away, but we needed to change the train twice to get to Place Charles de Gaulle.

We spotted a pub at the street corner on the way to the hotel, which was bustling with a Thursday night crowd. Great, this is where we can eat. We checked in, refreshed and came to the pub around ten pm. It didn’t have any spare seats. Many people were sitting on the wooden benches of the nearby fruit shop. The atmosphere was electric. People were drinking fancy cocktails. Some were even kissing the waiters. Great, we are at the right place. All we wanted was nice food.

We waited for a seat to become available and placed an order for the best food in the house. By the time it arrived, it was midnight and we were starving. My husband had ordered a steak and I, a chicken dish. Both meals were massive. We were happy. This is going to be the best meal so far.

It was the worst.

Was this part of Paris Syndrome?

Arc de Triomphe

The next morning, we decided to walk to Arc de Triomphe, which was not far from our hotel. We walked on the Avenue de Wagram for half an hour, but there was no sign of the Arc. 

Rain started. We took shelter and consulted our map. It turned out that we had been walking in the wrong direction.

While it was under construction, Napoleon had a wooden replica built, in 1810, so that he and his second wife, Marie Louise of Austria, could pass underneath it when they entered Paris for the first time as a married couple.

The Arc was finally inaugurated on July 29, 1836, 30 years after it was first commissioned. In 1840, Napoleon finally got to pass under the completed arch — when his body was taken to its final resting place.

It is an intricately sculpted masterpiece. Relief sculptures at the base of its four pillars depict four victories and several war scenes. 

The top of the arch lists the names of successful battles during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods. 

Less significant battles are inscribed on the inside walls, along with the names of 558 generals. The soldiers who died in battle, their names were underlined. 

On November 10, 1920, an unknown soldier who died in the First World War was buried under the arch. An eternal flame was lit to honor those who died in this conflict. 

Since then, the flame is lit each evening to honor the fallen. 

A few weeks after World War II, aviator Charles Godefroy flew a Nieuport fighter plane through the arch to honor the airmen who lost their lives in World War II.

Boat tour of the river Seine

We took a boat tour of the river Seine which was turned out to be an excellent way to see the main buildings between the Eiffel Tower and Saint-Louis Island.

The tour started from the Vedettes du Pont Neuf on City Island. You can walk to that point from the Louvre Museum.

The first building we spotted was Louvre, the famous museum. Louvre was first built as a fortress in the 12th century to protect the city of Paris. When it was no longer useful as a fortress, Louvre was turned into a royal palace. Then in the 18th century, when Louis XIV moved to Versailles, Louvre became the museum.

The river Seine has 37 bridges. We crossed under many of those. The first one was The Royal Bridge. It is one of the oldest bridges in the city. It was a gift from King Louis XIV to the people of Paris to make up for the expensive building work of Versailles.

Next was the Concord Bridge which is a symbolic bridge. It was built with the stones from the Bastille prison after it was destroyed during the French Revolution in1789.

Pont Alexander III is considered the most beautiful bridge in Paris. It was built for World Fair in 1900. It celebrates Franco-Russian friendship. 

It has a gilded coat of arms of St Petersburg on one side and the Coat of arms of Paris on the other side.

The Invalides Bridge is the lowest bridge on the Seine and it was built to celebrate the victories and battles of Napoleon.

Next was the Modern Alma Bridge, which was rebuilt in the 1970s. That is why it is called the modern bridge. It still has the old famous sculpture called the Zouave. Parisians used to measure the level of the river by this statue. During the great flood of 1910, the water reached Zouave’s neck, while in June 2016, it came up to its belt only.

Finally, the Eiffel Tower, the most famous monument of Paris,became visible. It was built to celebrate the centenary of the French Revolution. When it was presented at the world fair in 1889, Parisian hated it. They thought it was ugly and would collapse one day. Now they are very proud of it. It has become the symbol of France. 

Initially, it was built for 20 years only. In 1906 it was about to be demolition. But by that time they the radio and TV antennas mounted on it. There was no other place as high as Eiffel Tower to put them. So the authorities decided to keep the tower.

One thousand high and ten thousand tons heavy, Eiffel Tower was the highest monument in the world for a long time. Today it is considered as a work of art. by Gustave Eiffel, by whose name it is still known as.

Our boat took a ‘U’ turn from the Effiel Tower and we went back in the direction we came from. 

On the way, we spotted the Gilded Flame. Itis an exact copy of flame from the Statue of Liberty in New York. It was a return gift from the United States to France for the Statue of Liberty.

Gilded Flame is very close to the tunnel where Princess Diana died. Most people think it’s a memorial dedicated to her.

On the way back, from the boat, we could see the roof of The Grand Palace, which was built for the World Fair in 1900. Its impressive glass roof weighs 8,500 tons, almost as much as Eiffel Tower. 

It is so big that there used to be car and horse races organized inside. Now it is used to hosts exhibitions and fashion shows.

Now we had started moving in the other direction towards Notre Dame Cathedral and Saint-Louise Island.

We went underneath a bridge called the New Bridge. The New Bridge is in fact, the oldest bridge in Paris. It was built in the 17th century. It was called the New Bridge because it was the first bridge to walk and enjoy the view over the Seine. In those days, houses used to be built all along the bridges because they thought it was better for the foundations. A pedestrian bridge was something new hence the name the New Bridge.

It has funny and ugly faces all along with it, which are known as mascarons. They represent the friends and ministers of King Henry IV who didn’t believe the bridge was solid enough to stand. The king decided to mock them by installing their scornful faces on the bridge permanently.

We visited Paris when Notre Dame Cathedral was burnt just a couple of months ago. We were disappointed that we couldn’t see it from inside. We could see the scaffolding at the back but thankfully the front was undamaged

Notre Dame Cathedral is the gothic jewel of Paris. It was built between the 12th and 14th centuries and took almost two centuries to complete. It is famous for its statues, gargoyles, stained glass windows, and large rose glass window. It measures thirteen meters across and is made of 32,000 pieces of glass which makes the entire cathedral lit up from inside when the sun hits from the north.

The next bridge to cross was Tournelle Bridge which has the great statue of Sainte Genevieve, saint patroness of Paris. She is carrying a child in her arms which represents the people of Paris.

We sailed past Saint-Louise Island. Saint-Louise Island is the most expensive area in Paris. It has several beautiful mansions dating from the 17th century.

Next, we witnessed The Mary Bridge (the romantic bridge in Paris), the City Hall (where executions used to take place) and the Clock Tower (that houses the oldest public clock in Paris dating from the 14th century).

Then came in view the majestic building of the Conciergerie. It was initially a Royal Palace and was turned into a jail in the 14th century. 

Queen Marie Antoinette spent the last two months of her life here before she was beheaded.

By this time I had forgotten all about The Paris Syndrome. I was happy in the city of dreams. I will write more about Paris in my next few posts.

London has more than its fair share of museums and art galleries thanks to the British ruling half of the world. The most noteworthy are:

• The British Museum
• The National Gallery
• National Portrait Gallery
• Victoria and Albert Museum
• National History Museum
  Science Museum
• Tate Museum
• Tate Modern
• Museum of London
• Imperial War Museum
• V&A Museum of Childhood

Out of these, we managed to see four in this visit leaving others for future visits (hopefully!).

The best thing about British museums and galleries is that they are free for everyone. Perhaps the only right thing the British have done, after looting the colonial countries, is not to charge visitors to see their own heritage.

The British Museum

The British Museum has some of the most amazing collections in the world. With seventy galleries and about eight million artifacts, it is one of the largest museums in the world. We decided to keep one full day to visit the British Museum. It is one place where I can spend my whole life without getting bored.

We reached the South entrance of the museum quite early when there was no queue. The first thing that struck me, as soon as I entered the magnificent Greek temple-like entrance with colonnade and pediment was a great open area with lots of natural light.

It was unexpected. With that kind of entrance, I was expecting was an old building and narrow rooms. Instead, The Great Court, as it’s known, had the sun pouring in. The ceiling was exceptionally high and had a glass roof.

I learned later that although the museum is housed in the same building since it was first opened in 1759, it has gone through a number of enhancements particularly in the years leading up to 2000. The Great Court and the South entrance were new additions. The monumental look of the South entrance was designed to reflect the purpose of the building and prepare the visitors for the wondrous objects housed inside.

One Man’s Cabinet of Curiosities Became a Nation’s Museum

The British Museum was established in 1753, from the collection of a single person, an Irish physician and scientist Sir Hans Sloane.

During the course of his lifetime, Sloane gathered a large collection of curiosities. Not wishing to see his collection broken up after death, he bequeathed it to King George II, for the nation, for a sum of £20,000.

At that time, Sloane’s collection consisted of around 71,000 objects of all kinds including some 40,000 printed books, 7,000 manuscripts, extensive natural history specimens including 337 volumes of dried plants, prints, drawings and antiquities from Sudan, Egypt, Greece, Rome, the Ancient Near and the Far East and the Americas.

Its expansion over the following 250 years was largely a result of expanding British colonization. Later on, it resulted in the creation of several branch institutions, the first being the Natural History Museum in 1881.

It was the first public national museum in the world. It documents the story of human culture from its beginnings to the present. It was also the first public building to be electrically lit.

The Rosetta Stone

The most precious object in the museum is the Rosetta Stone. It was the key to unlocking the mysteries of Egyptian hieroglyphics. The Rosetta Stone has inscribed on it a decree passed by Egyptian priests on the first anniversary of the coronation of the Pharoah, Ptolemy V.

The decree is written in hieroglyphics, in demotic or everyday Egyptian of the period, and in Greek. By comparing the three languages on the tablet, scholars were finally able to translate Egyptian hieroglyphics.

How it came to British possession is another story.

The stone was discovered in 1799, during the Napoleonic Wars, by French soldiers digging the foundation of a fortress in El-Rashid. The British acquired it, along with other Egyptian antiquities, under the terms of the Treaty of Alexandria when Napoleon was defeated.

It has been displayed at the British Museum since 1802 except during WWII when it was hidden in a deep tunnel under London.

Easter Island statue

Hoa Hakananai’a – is an original Easter Island ancestor statue, made of basalt.

The name Hoa Hakanania’a means “Stolen or Hidden Friend”. It was probably carved around A.D. 1200.

It was acquired from a ceremonial center in Orongo, Rapa Nui, in 1869 and was presented to Queen Victoria who then gave it to the British Museum.

One of my favorite artifacts is the first library in the world. The last great Assyrian king, Ashurbanipal (reigned 668 – about 630 BC) created the world’s first library (below) to contain all knowledge in his palace Nineveh.

The tablets provide an unparalleled glimpse into the world of Assyria and Babylonia and what came before. Among thousands of tablets were kept some of the greatest works written in Mesopotamia, including the Epic of Gilgamesh.

The king’s library also contained extensive writing on divination, astrology, medicine, and mathematics.

Victoria and Albert Museum

I liked the Victoria and Albert Museum the most. It is massive, has the most varied collection and a lot of information about each exhibit.

It is the world’s largest museum of applied and decorative arts and design, as well as sculptures.

It houses a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects.

It was founded in 1852 by Prince Albert and his like-minded friends.

The museum was the result of the great foresightedness of Prince Albert whose vision was to educate designers, manufacturers and the public in art and design.

Its origins lie in the Great Exhibition of 1851 – the world’s first international display of design and manufacturing.

Following the Exhibition, its creator and champion, Prince Albert, saw the need to maintain and improve the standards of the British industry to compete in the international marketplace.

The most spectacular area in the museum is the Cast Courts. The Cast Courts were purpose-built in 1873 for the museum’s collection of copies of art and architecture.

At a time when most people could not afford to travel abroad to see important works, it was common for museums to supplement their collections with replicas in plaster. This made the museums a more effective educational resource.

The Cast Courts of the Victoria and Albert Museum have remained relatively unchanged since they were built. The iconic collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum is the biggest collection in the world which includes a copy of Trajan’s Column (shown in two parts because it is too high for the building) and Michelangelo’s David.

National Portrait Gallery

The National Portrait Gallery houses a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. It was the first portrait gallery in the world when it opened in 1856. It is situated at St Martin’s Place, off Trafalgar Square adjoining the National Gallery.

We spend almost three hours there. Not all the portraits are of exceptional quality but almost all of them are of historical significance. I particularly liked the following three portraits of Queen Elizabeth 1, Mary the Queen of Scott’s and Malala Yousafzai (an activist for female education).

I already wrote about The National Gallery in my post Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, and the National Gallery.

Did you like the post? Did anything the post surprise you?  Would you like me to write more about the museum and galleries I visited? 

Let me know through the comments section.