Why Paris?

Everyday I do my best to try to retain my wonder and awe at this adventure, but really, there is SO MUCH, and sometimes I think my head will burst, and the adrenalin can’t keep running at such a high level and I threaten to shut down.  When I can tell that the “wonder button” is going to short circuit I step back and try and think about what I’m doing, look around me, and consciously look for a new idea to explore, something that will keep my eyes open and my brain alive. So today we’re going to talk about Paris and education. Today’s walk covered the Museum of the Middle Ages, The Sorbonne, and Pantheon and took us to a collection of buildings and museums I hope I can use to illustrate my thought.  In the spirit of full disclosure I have to give some credit to David McCullough and his book The Greater Journey, American’s in Paris.  It’s the book I’ve been reading here and it’s about Americans who came to Paris in the 1800’s.  A fascinating book, it tells the stories of a few dozen prominent American’s who came to this city to expand their education and learning.  Those of you who’ve read much church history know that Brigham Young also sent a handful of early pioneers here to be trained in art and medicine so they could help build Zion in the Salt Lake Valley.  So, this all still begs the question: Why???  Why Paris and not St. Petersburg, or Vienna, or London.  Of course, people went to those places, but Paris is the city I’ve heard about most often when talking about education, new ideas, etc.  But why??

Of course, I really have no idea; I can only share with you the very unsophisticated thoughts of an amateur traveler, but let’s see where it takes us.  In his book, McCullough pulls from journals of those who traveled to this city nearly a hundred and eighty years ago, and I was so startled by their responses upon arrival.  The journals report that nearly all of the people who came here were overwhelmed with how old everything was and how stunningly rich the city was with history.  As I read through his excerpts I thought, “wow, this could be my journal, I could have written that very same thing, but it’s two hundred years later!  Everything is another two hundred years old.” I’ve been thinking about that for the last several weeks and I know that’s the seed for today’s thought, which really is very simple when you boil it down.  And it’s this: for whatever reason, Paris has had a somewhat contiguous historical story for 1500 to 2000 years, and they have managed to preserve a remarkable volume of original records, buildings, artifacts, and narratives that have stayed put in one place for centuries.  If you come to Paris there really aren’t many subjects that you can’t study, at least in terms of the broad liberal arts or scientific discoveries.  If the ideas didn’t originate here, the kings imported them quickly, and here they stayed.  So Paris has become one of the primary gathering spots for knowledge and ideas; it’s been sort of a one stop-shopping place for someone trying to broaden their horizons.  And because they’ve been gathering for so long, it’s overwhelming to the brain that comes here from a city that has only been gathering since 1847.  In Paris 1847 is last week, anything since then is covered in a current events class!

So, that’s the stream of conscious thinking that I had while I walked today, lets look at pictures.

We started today at the Museum of the Middle Ages

You can study architecture and building design starting in the 500's, during the Roman occupation. This is a Medieval Bath

In Paris, they've been at this so long they've had time to work on puzzles like this!  How do you take these pieces and decide they once looked like the metal structure??  Beats me!

Did you know that most old stone buildings and statues were originally painted?

An of course, if it has to do with the evolution of the Christian Religion, or the belief in the Madonna, you can study that here.

Stone Carving.  Maybe that doesn't sound interesting to you, but when I saw that this was done in the 12th century, I was more interested!

Okay, this room goes to the idea of about anything!  Carving, weaving painting, history, religion....

Metal working, beginning in the Middle Ages!

Domestic skills, methods, wares, you name it, you can study a long history of this subject just by coming to Paris.

You can study narrative and story telling, and ivory carving if you're interested.  This piece is about 4x6 inches.  Not bad, if you have a magnifying glass during it's creation (which they didn't, so it beats me how they did it)

You can study weaving, botany, fabrics.....

Always architecture.....

Painting.......or religion......women's history.....iconography......

More narrative, or domestic chores, or clothing styles, wine making or........

War!

By the time I was done with this museum, with these thoughts on my mind,  I couldn't help but think that it was pretty obvious why so many have traveled here under the banner of education. This place, Paris that is, is just one giant treasure trove. It's just all here, starting before the middle ages and moving forward in pretty complete fashion till today.  That's just a lot of information, no wonder I'm impressed.

So, the day just continured to make my point, here is 

A statute of Montaigne, a French philosopher.

Nearing the Sorbonne, the first University in France, founded in the 1257, and has often been the launching pad for social unrest and riots.

The Pantheon, another one of those buildings that was a church, then a monument, and then ended up being something in between.  This was built in the 1700's and now houses the graves of men of honor in France.  This includes philosophers such as Voltaire and Rousseau, writers such as Victor Hugo, and hero's such as Jean Mulin...

Remember the story about St Dennis how carried his head down the hill....they like that story here.

Victor Hugo's Crypt

This french motto is seen on lots of buildings

This wall, constructed in 1210, is all that remains of a wall that at one time surrounded the whole city of Paris.  Kind of makes you sick to see someone has put graffiti on it!

Just pretty!

Current French philosophy!  So much more interesting than the old stuff!

Afternoon treat!

And I try and eat warm pizza in front of a small fountain as often as I can.  It just makes the world look good, and I don't have to think hard while I'm doing it!