Ancient Logic

The second day I wanted to see the Louvre. Josh had already seen it and Lauren wasn't particularly keen to spend the hours I knew I was going to walking around there so I woke up early Sunday morning to find its famous glass pyramid opening. I arrived shortly before 9:00 am, when the museum opened, to discover a line already stretching across the pyramid, across the courtyard, up some steps, well on its way to filling up the next courtyard. It took maybe half an hour to finally reach the ticket office and from there I was free to wander the galleries. Warned against following the incipient hordes to the Mona Lisa gallery, I decided to visit the ancient art galleries first. Seeing as how every other gallery contained something - Hammurabi's stele, cuneiform astronomy tables, an statue of an Egyptian Scribe - that I teach in my classroom, this part of my visit felt more business than pleasure. No matter. One aspect of a museum like the Louvre is it opens your eyes to just h...

Last week, my wife and I visited Paris and Barcelona in one of those 'only-every-few-years' types of vacations. Neither of us had been to either city before and had a blast. The experiences in each of the cities were so different, I thought I would split my record of the visit into two (or three...) parts, starting with Paris. I have not exactly been pining to visit the City of Light my entire life. I knew that I would get there eventually but somehow it just never occupied as much of my imagination as say China, Japan, Australia, or any of the other places I've visited. I blame French class. However, once we set our sights on Paris, I start digging around, dusting off my wretched French, and generally growing very excited about the city and its possibilities. In particular, "Paris to the Moon," by Adam Gopnik, painted for me a compelling picture of modern Paris, an at-times overwhelming metropolis riddled with an almost anachronistic humanism and comp...