We woke up this morning to blue skies above Paris, which actually made me do a double-take as I walked by the window - it's basically been gray and rainy for weeks, making the sun a very welcome sight. And because it's the first Sunday of the month, many of the museums in Paris open their doors for free. We decided to spend our first free museum Sunday at the Musée Rodin, which is in our hood, and houses Rodin's famous sculpture, The Thinker (Le Penseur). I had not realized it before our visit, but The Thinker was originally cast as part of Rodin's The Gates of Hell in 1888 (pictured below on the right with that handsome man in the front), and represents Dante, leaning forward to observe the circles of Hell while meditating on his work. It was enlarged in 1904 to a larger statue, and was recast into numerous sculptures that are housed around the world (Wikipedia says there are 28 of them). The museum itself is currently under renovation, which was a bit disappointing, but hey we didn't pay to get in so we couldn't complain too much. It's definitely a gorgeous building that will be great to see once it's finished, but overall it was a different experience than what we had expected (aka, to see a museum and not just gardens). And then our day took a turn that we had not anticipated when heading out this morning. While wrapping up our Rodin visit in the gift shop, we heard shouts from what sounded like a large crowd outside, and saw this from the window: Um... what?!? We had absolutely NO idea what was going on outside, but as we headed out of the museum, we saw a huge crowd of protestors marching down the Ecole Militaire waiving flags and holding signs.
The Rodin museum was smack in the middle of an area that was barricaded on either side by the police. We weren't sure if we would be able to get out, and even saw a guy pushing a police officer who wouldn't let him through. Time to leave. It turned out to be a non-violent protest organized by a group called Manif Pour Tous, which translates "Protest for Everyone." The group was marching in defense of "traditional family values" and against proposed changes to French law that would allow gay marriage. The group was described on one news channel as the French response to America's Tea Party. In other words, we are not huge fans of these people. However, I am always moved when I see people with the ability to peacefully voice their opinion without being silenced by the government (even if I don't happen to agree with them). Protesters had traveled to Paris from all around the region, and were proudly marching behind signs announcing the town from which they came - in all, tens of thousands of people showed up. We stood and watched the people walk by for maybe 30 minutes. They just kept coming, and it was remarkable to see how well-organized they all were. Everyone was waving a pink or blue flag with the same logo on it (one mother, one father, two children - because that's obviously what defines a family), or a French flag, or a pink or blue sweatshirt marked with the same logo. At one point, Michael said something about how strange it was to see so many children taking part in the protest - the visible manifestation of what a family "should" look like. It was so sad to both of us to see these kids running around and waving flags in support of something that they were clearly too young to understand.
1 Comment
Brittany
2/2/2014 01:35:17 pm
What an interesting and contrasting day. First art.....then......not art.
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