Wikipedia and the Eiffel Tower

On my next trip to Europe (hopefully next summer? Since tentative-though-initially-firm plans for a trip this summer are now axed), I will visit Paris and look for an Eiffel Tower snowglobe, probably (though not preferably) made in China.

I have a snowglobe from Venice that I bought for €5 in 2006, my sister gave me one from New York (at my request) for Christmas 2007, and I guess I'm still greatly influenced by that movie Equilibrium, and the scene with Christian Bale when he finds the room with artifacts ... including an Eiffel Tower snowglobe.

I don't think I've yet encountered THE ONE, but I particularly like this one:

Though I could live with having this one:

And this is a very nice and pretty picture as well:


Now, I've read that the very first snowglobes were actually of the Eiffel Tower, sold as souvenirs for the 1889 Exposition Universelle (World's Fair), though the wikipedia article about snowglobes states they appeared in the EARLY 1800's in other parts of France. In any event, it is clear that one of the earliest known snowglobes is of the Eiffel Tower, from the late 1800's. This paperweight museum in Wisconsin has one. I want one.

I still remember going down to see the fireworks on the Eiffel in 1998. My memory is fuzzy, and I don't think I took many pictures, but it was Bastille Day (July 14), similar to our 4th of July. I guess they also call it the 14th of July over there, as well.

In 1998, France, the host of the World Cup, just ALSO happened to have won the finals the day before, so it was quite a big dust-up. There were parades during the day, some jets flew overhead, and lots of flags. Lots and lots of flags. I remember one of my traveling partners taking a really cute shot from behind of a toddler waving a little French flag, and trying to be surreptitious and sneaky about it. I have never encountered anyone in Europe who has denied me the request of taking a picture of their child, but maybe they aren't as paranoid about some things as Americans may be. Also, it's nice to take candid shots of children sometimes, rather than the deer-in-the-headlights look they may adopt.

Anyway, we trudged down to find a decent viewing spot, and I totally forget where it was. What I remember is that the fireworks were horrendously late. Over an hour, I think. I can't seem to remember if the French are known for not starting on time or something. Probably not. And they turned off all the lights on the tower for the fireworks. When they finally got going, I remember red, and blue, and pink fireworks shooting off from the top of the tower and off to the side. It wasn't AMAAAAAAAAAAAZING (I was quite impressed by the fireworks I'd seen in Florence in mid-June, during the Feast of St. John the Baptist, which we totally caught by accident - the first time I'd ever seen happy face fireworks and heart-shaped fireworks ... and also stood in the street for an hour breathing in motorscooter fumes because nobody turned anything off), but it was very very memorable. But come on! Fireworks! On the Eiffel Tower!! When I am in Paris, France!! It was a nice experience.


Especially since after the fireworks had finished, because they'd started so late, we'd missed the last metro back to our hostel and had a lengthy walk in the middle of the night.

Paris, 1998. The bakery down the street from our hostel had the best croissant I'd ever tasted in my life. I took my sister to Europe in 2004 and we stayed there again, as well. I got us lost. Waaaaaaaaay into the outer industrial arrondissements, when I was JUST trying to walk us down to Notre Dame and maybe catch a glimpse of the Eiffel. Oops. Guess it's pretty bad when there's an intersection of TWO STREETS WITH EXACTLY THE SAME NAME. However, I DID buy a creme brulee at another little bakeshop and it was divine. And at least we went to Sacre Coeur (fond memories!) and having read up beforehand on scammers, definitely saw all them dudes with the bracelets ripping people/couples off.

So, on to more wikipedia. I don't know WHAT it is, but somehow I always end up on that site. I'm a big ole nerd, basically. The internet is the best library that has ever, ever, ever been invented and I am grateful for it every day. I love to read. I love to research. I look everything up and find it all fascinating. And apparently, Hitler told this guy to demolish Paris and sack it before leaving, including busting up the Eiffel tower, but he didn't. I love this guy, I guess!!

Generally, I try to take everything with a grain of salt, but sometimes I get a little too excited.

I love the wikipedia article about the Eiffel Tower because it also has some seriously neat photographs.

This page has another history of the tower, with a picture of the plans!! Wowee. This site is another nice page.

So somehow I found this picture:

Which I just thought was ... totally mesmerizing, and fairly shimmering with pathos. I thought it was a picture of Russia, or someplace. But no. I totally had my mind blown.

*Warning - the next part of this particular post gets kinda intense with WWII-related material, so be forewarned - it's not exactly happy stuff.

This picture is from the wikipedia article about Oradour-sur-Glane, a town in France near Limoges. It was obliterated by the Nazis (a good portion of the perpetrators were actually from the French Alsace, as well, though that part gets left out sometimes) when 642 of the townspeople were killed in one day - the men rounded up and shot, mostly in the legs, so they were too injured to run before being burnt in the barns, and the women and children barricaded in the church, machine-gunned, and torched as well. There were 6 survivors, including one seven-and-a-half year old boy. The only one to survive the church was a woman who was shot five times, but able to climb up a ladder in the rear of the church and hurl herself through a window that was 10ft off the ground so she could hide in the garden between a row of peas or cabbage. The rest of the men survivors pretended to be dead so they would not be shot, and only ran out of the burning barns when they were starting to be burned themselves. There was a mason amongst them who was able to make a hole in one wall so they were able to escape. I think at least one of the men is still alive today.

And then I'm thinking to myself, am I uneducated? Why have I never heard of this??? I think there have been several films made about this specific event, but honestly, until today, I had never heard of it, much less of WWII tragedies in France involving mostly civilians. I know there was the French Resistance, and Normandy, but ... anyway.

I found the picture mesmerizing, and started looking up more information about it. What I find utterly fascinating is seeing the pictures - some pictures before June 10, 1944, some immediately after, and some taken quite recently. It is compelling for me to find vintage pictures and compare them with contemporary pictures at the same location, from the same vantage point, or of the same subject.

Anyway, seeing old pictures of the town, with more recent pictures, is just fascinating - there are pictures of the church, the post office, and of course, the doctor's (now thought to be the wine merchant's) car abandoned in front of the building. There are several very good sites, but this one is a particularly beautiful and comprehensive one.

It is a bit sad and depressing, especially once you start watching some of the videos from youtube, but it's one of those things that just feels more human not to ignore or overlook it.

So then, in terms of pictures, the WEIRDEST thing I found was pictures on wikipedia with captions such as "This image was selected as a picture of the day for July 04, 2008. It was captioned as followed: English: Car and buildings in Oradour-sur-Glane" and "This image was selected as a picture of the day for June 05, 2008. It was captioned as followed: English: Champagne Pool, Wai-O-Tapu thermal wonderland / New Zealand."


I was like, wait, what day is it???? I CAN SEE INTO THE FUTURE!! Quite cool, actually, to come upon that by accident - and I only clicked on the picture because I recognized it from my trip last year!

Not quite the same impressive effect, eh??

Anyway, wikipedia has already chosen the pictures of the day for all of June and July if any curious readers would like to check it out.

I will end this post (finally!) with one of the most beautiful pictures I can ever recall seeing.