Wednesday, September 18, 2013

I went to Paris for a geomorphology conference and all I looked at was this giant mirrored structure...

So I got to present at the 8th annual IAG (International Association of Geomorphologists) conference in Paris, which was a pretty awesome conference in terms of learning cool geomorphology stuff - but, as a tourist, I pretty much sucked. You would barely even know that I was IN Paris. Oh well, the "Geode" was super cool looking and it was right at the Cite des Sciences, which is where the conference was.

La Geode: view from Cite des Sciences

La Geode: late afternoon

  
La Geode: sunrise, as seen from the apartment

 
La Geode: sunset, as seen from the apartment

  
La Geode: fooling around with mirrors like a funhouse

The above is only a very small fraction of the photos I took of the Geode. I think I have 200 photos from Paris and 190 of them are Geode-related. Anyway, below is the majority of the other 10 photos.

  
Hilarious diorama in the window of an apartment I walked by daily on my way to the Cite des Sciences

Ultra creepy window... "decoration"? of a hair salon... with dude playing piano inside (as inexplicable as the dolls...)

 
Oh look! It's the Seine!

Sweet lion sculpture and some sort of famous structure in the background

I spent almost my entire time in the Louvre within the confines of the basement Egypt exhibit. Because it was AMAZING. Look at the freaking detail in those hieroglyphics!!! Look at the face! The feathers! I was completely blown away.

And then I saw the mummies. The Egyptians mummified EVERYTHING. Scarab beetles. Ibises. Cats, dogs, crocodiles, small rodents. They even had sarcophagi. I think I looked at mummies for an hour, and then an announcement went over the PA system that they were closing in 15 minutes so I dashed off to find the Mona Lisa...

...but I got distracted by Roman mosaics, which were spectacular as well.


I did take a moment to look up at the Eiffel Tower as well. It's definitely a neat structure, it's no Geode... but it's pretty neat.