Explore . Dream . Discover .: From The Gates of Hell to The Tower of Glory

This blog is gonna make you gag looking at way too many shots of the monument of Paris, the Eiffel Tower. I mean, the Parisians might say it looks, "hideous, hideous", but for foreigners like us who spend half their life looking at the tower from the TV screen, it is simply "glorious, glorious".

Anyway, before I go to Eiffel Tower, let me spend a little bit of time going to a museum that is on my must-go-list in the itinerary after The Louvre.

This museum is one of the smaller museums compared to the giants of the like of Louvre or Orsay. It is actually located in a 18th-century mansion whom the artist used to stay and create his work of art. Yes, it is none other than the Musee Rodin.

Auguste Rodin stayed in this mansion from 1908 until his death in 1917. In return for a state-owned flat and studio, Rodin left his work to the nation and it is now being exhibited right here, the place where he sculpted all his masterpieces. I am a fan of sculptures and to be able to come here to see the masterpiece of Rodin's work is just unbelievable.

La Porte de l'Enfer / The Gates of Hell

Most of Rodin's famous sculptures revolves around Dante's poem, Inferno. The main piece is of course none other than 'The Gates of Hell'. I have always like Dante's poem and to be able to see with my own eyes a sculpture that is created based on this epic poem is like a dream come true. I sat in front of this sculpture, refused to move to just take in everything ... feel it, listen to it.

Through me you go to the grief wracked city

Through me you go to everlasting pain

Through me you go a pass among lost souls

Justice inspired my exalted Creator

I am a creature of the Holiest Power, of Wisdom in the Highest and of Primal Love

Nothing till I was made, only eternal beings, and I endured eternally,

Abandon all hope - Ye Who Enter Here

From The Gates of Hell, some of the sculpture were enlarged and made an art on its own. Three of the most well known ones are:

Les trois Ombre / The Three Shades

1.The Three Shades (Les trois Ombre) were located on the top of The Gates of Hell pointing to the phrase - Abandon all hopes, you who enter here.

Le Penseur / The Thinker

2. The Thinker sits just on top of the door panels looking down at all the sufferings human is going through because of sin in the nine circles of hell. The Thinker could be Dante or Adam.

Le Baiser / The Kiss
Note : I found this sculpture in front of Musee de L Orangerie instead of Musee Rodin

3. The forbidden kiss of Paolo and Francesca. Because Francesca is married, their kiss condemned them to wander eternally in hell.

Other Rodin's work of art.

Monument to Balzac

Monument to Victor Hugo

Monument to James McNeill Whistler

I feel that I'm most connected to the work of Auguste Rodin in all the work of arts that I managed to see in my visits to the museums around Paris. To be able to connect an epic poem that I personally like so much to original pieces of art that is sculpted to manifest the meaning of the poem into something we can touch and see is just so amazing to me.

On my way out of Musee Rodin, I passed by some more of beautiful buildings that I did not go in but managed to snap a shot or two.

Dome Church
It took 27 years to build and in the crypt lies Napoleon.

Hotel des Invalides
It is a hospital and home for French war veterans

The facade of Hotel des Invalides
It is 196m long

OMG, OMG, I'm here, I'm here. I'm in Paris! Tour Eiffel ... needs no introduction, needs no explanation. So I'm just gonna feed pictures and pictures of the tower, well 10 of my best various shots.