Chateau de Malmaison

In 1799 while Napoleon was off fighting the Egyptians, his wife Josephine thought it would be nice to buy a new house, which she continued to live in after he divorced her and it is now a national museum. It's not very far from Paris, but visitation doesn't seem to be very high; even though my friends and I went on a Saturday, there were hardly any other visitors there. Regardless, the interior was well-preserved and the museum as a whole was put together nicely, making it a fun afternoon excursion.

I think this photo pretty well-captures the bleak weather we have a lot. I'm not sure if the weather has killed the plants or if maybe they haven't been taken care of as of late, but the once impressive gardens weren't looking so hot.

Of course, there were glorious portraits of Napoleon all over the place.

This was Josephine's bedroom...but not quite. There was another less fancy and more comfortable one for her to really use. The furnishings were interesting to see because a lot of them were very modern looking. Definitely more so than at Versailles or the rooms in Carnavalet.

We walked around the surrounding area, Rueil-Malmaison, but didn't really see much else of interest. At least the colors of fall made everything a little prettier! It was nice to get out of the city, even if only to the suburbs.

When we went back to Paris, everyone else went to see Saw VI, to which I said no thank you. Philippe texted me when the movie ended so I could meet back up with them, but then the other three decided not to do anything afterwards. Standing there in the St. Michel area, not wanting to spend money but not wanting to go home, Philippe and I started to walk. Like many an evening walk before, this one led to the Louvre. I don't think I could ever get bored with seeing this building at night, I love it.

We then walked to the edge of the Tulleries to watch the Eiffel Tower sparkling (which it does on the hour) then see a colorful new light show that lasted a few minutes. Since the Tulleries are locked at night, we walked around the side then towards La Place de la Concorde.

Ever wonder why it's called the city of lights?

We were a little confused about what was going on here, but Philippe realized that the thing on the right is the rock that the character Obelix carries in the French cartoon Asterix and Obelix. There's a display in the Latin Quarter of famous paintings in original format next to ones including Asterix and Obelix characters to celebrate the series' 50th anniversary. So this must be something along those lines, mimicking the obelisk with Obelix's rock on its own pedestal. I'm not sure why the obelisk has that thing around it.