This is the place de la Bastille, the site of the infamous prison stormed by revolutionaries in 1789. The column, la colonne de Juillet, was completed in 1835, not to commemorate the 1789 revolution, but to pay homage to the victims of the three-day July revolution of 1830, known as les trois glorieuses (the Three Glorious Days).
La colonne de Juillet, place de la Bastille, April 2008.
Speaking of glorious days, Tasha is going in to the see the vet this morning. She's having her teeth cleaned. She has to fast until after the procedure. Not her choice. Poor thing. She doesn't understand why she's not getting her regular breakfast. Her appointment is at 08h45. We'll see if she wants lunch when she gets home.
Poor Tasha. Don’t you wish you could explain these things?
ReplyDeleteThe statue (1836), by Auguste Dumont (1801-1884), atop the column, le Génie de la Liberté, is better known as Génie de la Bastille.
ReplyDeleteIn his right hand he holds the flame of liberty and in his left hand, broken chains.
Akin to the Liberté éclairant le monde in New York.
Good luck with the teeth cleaning. I always tried to "brush" Murphy's teeth, but I wasn't very diligent about it. Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteOh, poor Tasha! Just what Mitchell said... it's hard that you can't explain to her. But, by now, it has already happened, and she has had her lunch, and all is right with the world again :)
ReplyDeleteI will never forget my first trip to Paris coming up from the metro to this very view. My jaw dropped and I said, “I’m in Paris!”
ReplyDeletemitch, really! She came through just fine.
ReplyDeletechm, interesting!
michael, I got the speech from the vet. I told him my intentions were noble, but that I wasn't very good at keeping at it.
judy, she's back to her bouncy, barky self.
bettyann, ha!