My Exploration of the World and Myself: Vasco and Nunez are tourists in Paris for the day

Well... I can't be here in Paris if I don't do what tourists do. So here we are at the Louvre Museum...

Yes, that is the Mona Lisa behind shields of glass. She stares at approximately 6 million visitors a year.

Facts About Mona Lisa
Leonardo da Vinci was a genius of the renaissance period. His skills were legendary - painter, architect, engineer, mathematician and philosopher but he is perhaps best known for his paintings especially that of the Mona Lisa. The name of the subject of this wonderful painting was believed to be of Mona Lisa del Gioconda. Mona Lisa was the wife of Francesco di Bartolommeo di Zanobi del Giocondo. Mona Lisa was believed to be 24 years old at the time her portrait was painted. Her enigmatic smile has captured the imagination of people for centuries.

Concise Biography & Facts About the artist - Leonardo da Vinci
Nationality - Italian
Place of Birth - Vinci, Italy
Lifespan - April 15, 1452 - May 2, 1519
Family - Son of Ser Piero di Antonio and Caterina
Educated - Served as an apprentice to Andrea del Verrocchio

Here are some interesting facts about the Mona Lisa

Da Vinci started to work at this painting in 1503
He spent four years on the portrait
It is painted on 77 x 53 cm poplar wood
He never sold the portrait
It has been suggested that the portrait of the Mona Lisa is in fact Leonardo's female version of himself
August 22, 1911 - Mona Lisa was stolen but soon recovered
In 1956 an acid attempt damaged the lower half of the painting, the restoration took several years

This is the beautiful Winged Victory of Samothrace (my mom's favourite, as well as my own). The product of an unknown sculptor, the Victory is believed to date to approximately 190 BC.... it's an ITC (Inability to capture) So amazing and incredible. For the full article please go to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winged_Victory_of_Samothrace

But here is small quote:

Despite its significant damage and incompleteness, the Victory is held to be one of the great surviving masterpieces of sculpture from the Hellenistic period, and from the entire Greco-Roman era. The statue shows a mastery of form and movement which has impressed critics and artists since its discovery. It is particularly admired for its naturalism and for the fine rendering of the draped garments. It is considered one of the Louvre's greatest treasures, and since the late 19th century it has been displayed in the most dramatic fashion, at the head of the sweeping Daru staircase. The loss of the head and arms, while regrettable in a sense, is held by many to enhance the statue's depiction of the supernatural.

And of course...the one and only... Eiffel Tower.

Eiffel Tower, one of the most famous monuments of the world, is an iron tower in Paris. It has been built on the Champ de Mars, beside the Seine River. It took 2 years, 2 months, and 5 days to build this huge tower, which was completed in 1889. Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, the same person who built the internal frame of the Statue of Liberty, was the main architect of the tower and it has been named after him only. The tower is beautifully illuminated at night, for which it consumes 7.8 million kWh per year. In order to know some more fun and interesting facts about Eiffel Tower, go through the following lines.

Fun & Interesting Facts About Eiffel Tower
Eiffel Tower has been named after its designer, engineer Gustave Eiffel.
Eiffel Tower is the tallest building in Paris.
The height of Eiffel Tower, including its 24 m (79 ft) antenna, is 324 m.
The height of Eiffel Tower is equivalent to 81 levels in a conventional building.
The construction work of Eiffel Tower started on January 26, 1887 and was completed on March 31, 1889.
Till 1930, Eiffel Tower was the tallest building in the whole world.
The metal structure of the Eiffel Tower weighs 7,300 tonnes, while the entire structure, including non-metal parts, weighs around 10,100 tonnes.
Fifty engineers and designers produced 5,300 drawings, and over 100 workers built more than 18,000 different parts of the tower in a workshop.
Eiffel Tower was inaugurated on March 31, 1889.
2,500,000 rivets and 18,038 iron parts make up the Eiffel Tower.
In 1889, the cost of construction of the Eiffel Tower was around 7,799,401.31 French gold francs.
The four pillars of the Eiffel Tower stand in a square that measures 125 meters on each side.
The 1^st floor of Eiffel Tower stands at a height of 57 m, while the 2^nd and 3^rd floor are 115 m and 276 m high, respectively.
One can visit the different floors of the monument via elevators.
Strong winds can sway Eiffel Tower slightly. During the storm of 1999, it moved approximately 13 centimeters from its initial position.
Eiffel Tower hosted the first French radiophonic experiments and also played a crucial role in the inception of French television.
Eiffel Tower is home to dozens of antennas, of all sorts, including a television mast that is 324 meters high.
Le Figaro sets up a printing press on the second floor of Eiffel Tower in 1889. Till date, the paper is published on site and visitors who buy it can have their name inscribed on their copy.
Eiffel Tower is painted every 7 years. It gets covered in 3 shades of brown, with the darkest one at the bottom.
The 19^th painting of Eiffel Tower is scheduled to begin in autumn 2008
Approximately 60 tons of paint and a time period of 15 to 18 months is required to paint the Eiffel Tower.
On a clear day, one can see up to 42 miles away, from the top of Eiffel Tower.
The base of Eiffel Tower is spread over an area of 100 square meters.
The Eiffel Tower is open 365 days a year.
4 tons of dusters & cleaning cloths, 10,000 doses of cleaning items, 400 liters of detergents and 25,000 bin bags are needed to clean Eiffel Tower.
Eiffel Tower has two restaurants, on the first and second platforms, named Altitude and Jules Verne.
Till 2003, over 200 million people had visited the Eiffel Tower, since its inception.
Eiffel Tower was initially intended to be dismantled and sold as scrap 20 years after its construction, but this never happened.
The sides of Eiffel Tower, just beneath the first platform, have been affixed with named of 72 prominent French scientists and famous personalities.
Wheelchair-bound people can visit the Eiffel Tower up to the second level, using the elevator.

And then there's the Arc de Triomphe:

Arc de Triomphe is one of the most representative monuments of Paris as well as the most illustrious symbol of French national history. It is situated at the west end of Champs-Elysées, in the centre of Place de l’Étoile (that was extensively redesigned in 1860s by Baron Haussmann, who increased the number of avenues to twelve). Today the Arc offers museum linked to the history of the monument, as well as panoramatic view from the roof. Looking eastwards, down the Champs Elysées, toward the Louvre, there is the Place de la Concorde, the Tuileries Gardens, and the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel. Looking the opposite direction - westwards - in the distance is its larger and newer cousin, La Grande Arche de la Défense.

The construction of the monument began in 1806 on the orders of Napoleon Bonaparte in honour of the French army shortly after his victory at Austerlitz. It was finished just thirty years later, on 30th July 1836 under the reign of Louis Philippe.

The arc is 51 metres high and 45 metres wide and it is the second largest Victory Arc in the world (The larger one is in North Korea).

The astylar design was made by Jean Chalgrin and it is the neoclassical version of Roman architecture. He was taking care of architecture from the beginning to 1811, when he died and was replaced by Joust. After 1814 the construction was stopped and finished just during the years 1833 – 1836 with Blouet being its third and last architect. Besides architects, there were major academic sculptors of France cooperating on the project: Cortot, Rude, Étex, Pradier and Lemaire. There are four main sculptural groups at the base of the Arc. There are: “The Triumph of 1811” (made by Jean-Piere Cortot), “Resistance” and “Peace” (both by Antoine Étex) and “Departure of the Volunteers of ’92”, called also “La Marseillaise” (by Francois Rude).

On the inside walls there are 558 names of French generals listed. Some of them are underlined – those soldiers died in the battle. There is also richly sculptured frieze of soldiers and in the attic above them are 30 shields engraved with the names of famous victories during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods.

The Tomb of Unknown Soldier from the World War I is situated beneath the Arc and eternal flame commemorates the dead who were never identified from both world wars.

The famous victory marches past the Arc included the Germans in 1871 and also in 1940, then the French in 1918 and the French together with Allies in 1944 and 1945.