Saturday, February 23, 2008

Let Sleeping Lions Lie

Willowtree has a post today with a much closer picture
of the lion statue in Trafalgar Square, London. I love
this scene I took from a distance.



Speaking of sleeping lions, here lies an heroic lion.


The Swiss Guards' honor was put to the test in 1792, when--after trying to escape the French Revolution--King Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette, and their children were hauled back to the Tuileries Palace in Paris. A mob of working-class Parisians stormed the palace in search of aristocratic blood. More than 700 Swiss officers and soldiers died while defending the palace, without knowing that their royal employers--like Elvis--had left the building.

In the early 1800s, the Danish artist Bertel Thorvaldsen was hired to sculpt a monument to the fallen Swiss Guards. The sculpture was carved in a sandstone cliff above the city center, near Lucerne's Glacier Garden and the Panorama, and it has attracted countless visitors since its dedication in 1821.

Louvre {loov'-ruh} — a French palace and the national art museum of France.

Located in Paris, the Louvre is one of the largest palaces in the world and, as a former residence of the kings of France, one of the most illustrious. It exemplifies traditional French architecture since the Renaissance, and it houses a magnificent collection of ancient and Western art.

This is Canova-Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss

There was so much to see at the Louvre.  We could not
possibly have seen it all.  We just had to pick and choose
where we would go.  I don't remember and cannot find
what the name of this statue is.  Someone please tell
me in the comments if you know. 


Here is my daughter in a panoramic view of Lucerne.
The most beautiful city ever, I think.