Been there, done this;

Paris

Place de la Concorde  one of the major public squares in Paris, France. Measuring 8.64 hectares in area, it is the largest square in the French capital. It is located in the city's eighth arrondissement, at the eastern end of the Champs-Élysées.

In  2008  Sacré Coeur  was visited by 10,5 Million people.

7 Million visited the Eiffel Tower.

Notre Dame was visited by 13.6 Million  people.

French Trivia

A Powder Room was strictly used to powder the wig!

Coco Chanel said:" There is time for work and time for love; that leaves no other time!

Bistro comes from the word bistrouille. French slang for a mixture of inexpensive brandy and coffee!

Late in the 17Th  century small rooms designed for grooming - les toilettes, meaning both dressing room, cabinet de toilette - and the toilette itself - appeared.

Marie Antoinette was partial to purple. she splashed her private rooms in her favourite shades; washed wooden pieces in dignified greenish grey.

Centuries ago, Empress Eugenie's  love for perfumes led to a race to produce alluring perfume bottles. Today, factices - factitions,  bottles that serve as prototypes for perfumeries - are collectibles.

©Ts

Bookshelf;

The written word abides;

The winter Palace;   by Eva Stachniak;

From the book:  ...…I was a tongue, a gazette. The bearer of the truth of the whispers”…

Elizabeth and Catherine had their female spies at court; these girls or women were called  "a tongue".

A well written and researched novel, brings to life the Empress Elisabeth and the early years of

  Catherine the Great;  

 Elizaveta Petrovna (29 December 1709 – 5 January 1762), also known as Yelisavet and Elizabeth, was the Empress of Russia (1741-1762).

As a child, Elizabeth was bright, if not brilliant, but her formal education was both imperfect and desultory. Her father, Peter the Great adored her. Elizabeth was his daughter and in many ways resembled him as a feminine replica, both physically and temperamentally. Peter had no leisure to devote to her training, and her mother, Catherine I of Russia, was too down-to-earth and illiterate to superintend her formal studies.

She had a French governess, and was fluent in Italian, German and French. She was also an excellent dancer and rider. From her earliest years she delighted everyone with her extraordinary beauty and vivacity. She was commonly known as the leading beauty of the Russian Empire.

Born: April 21 (May 2), 1729 Szczecin, Pomerania (Prussian Kingdom)

Died: November 6 (17), 1796 Tsarskoye Selo, Russia

The future Catherine the Great was born a German princess in one of many tiny German states, but ended her life a powerful and enlightened ruler of the vast Russian Empire. In 1745 she married Prince Carl Peter Ulrich, the heir to the Russian throne (the future Emperor Peter III). Being a bright personality with a strong sense of determination she joined the Russian Orthodox Church, learned the Russian language and through personal study acquired a brilliant education. She was proud to be a friend and an active correspondent of some of the brightest thinkers of the day, such as the prominent philosophers of the French Enlightenment, Rousseau and Diderot.

In June 1762 Catherine took an active part in a coup against her husband Emperor Peter III. He was overthrown and later killed "in an accident", and Catherine became Russia's autocratic ruler. Throughout her long reign she undertook many reforms and ensured the extension of the Russian Empire by acquiring territories in Southern Ukraine and the Crimea. Amongst her reforms was the extension of rights and privileges granted to the Russian nobility, which won Catherine popularity among the Russian social elite.

Catherine had a string of sensationalized and widely publicized love affairs with various army officers and politicians, although much of what was reported was untrue. Nevertheless, she promoted most of her lovers to the highest ranks and some of them proved themselves extremely talented and able figures (for example Prince Potyomkin, a very prominent general and political figure of the day).


Catherine the Great, being the foreign element in the Romanov dynasty, wanted to establish strong links with earlier Russian history and the Romanov Tsars and with this in mind she commissioned an impressive monument to Peter the Great - the Bronze Horseman. Most experts agree that Catherine changed the appearance of St. Petersburg quite significantly, and turned it into one of the most impressive capital cities in Europe.

Catherine the Great died in 1796 at the age of 67, having lived longer than any other Romanov monarch. She was buried in the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg.


My thoughts about Monarchies;

Monarchies in the 21 first century  are outdated and should be abolished!

I do not think they have a genuine place in today’s society. The term aristocracy is nothing else then a man made word to deceive the people, duped to function as the tool of another person or power.There is no aristocracy this is a man made invention.
 Aristocracy had its time and  worked well for them but now it is time to get rid of this invention as it  is absolutely superfluous. People are people,  none has blue blood, the so called aristocracy are humans like everybody else, they have the same bodily functions, nothing superior.

Why should tax payers money be used to prop up the spongers of society, whose forefathers have killed, lied and robbed the people for centuries?

Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

Pandoras Box;

 A pithos from Crete, ca. 675 BC. Louvre

The original Greek word used was pithos, which is a large jar, sometimes as large as a small person. It was used for storage of wine, oil, grain or other provisions.

In the case of Pandora, this jar may have been made of clay for use as storage. 

The mistranslation of pithos is usually attributed to the 16th century humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam who translated Hesiod's tale of Pandora into Latin. Erasmus rendered pithos as the Greek pyxis, meaning box.

Pandora's Box is an artifact in Greek mythology, taken from the myth of Pandora's creation in Hesiod's Works and Days. The "box" was actually a large jar given to Pandora  which contained all the evils of the world.

When Pandora opened the jar, all its contents except for one item were released into the world. 

The one remaining item was Hope. Today, to open Pandora's box means to create evil that cannot be undone. 

Pandoras box has been opened there is so much evil that has been done  and is continuing in a very fast pace.

HOPE is still in the box. People of the world might come to their senses and recognize what is done to them in the name of  “terror”! Governments have no sense of right and wrong anymore. They are slaves to the oligarchy and Plutocracy. Democracy is nothing but a catch phrase. Nothing is democratic in our system, it is a make believe system. Governments do not work for the people but against them to the  advantage of the elites of the world.. Hope  means for all the people of the world NO more wars.

An oligarchy is a form of government in which most of the political power effectively rests with a small segment of society, typically the people who have the most wealth, military strength, ruthlessness or political influence. The word "oligarchy" from the Greek words olígos, which means "few," and archo, which means "to rule". Arguably all societies are inevitably oligarchies, regardless of their supposed political system.

How Oligarchies Form

Oligarchies are often controlled by a few powerful families whose children are raised and mentored to become inheritors of power, often at some sort of expense to those governed. In contrast with aristocracy — or government by the "best" — this power might not always be exercised openly, with some oligarchs preferring to remain "the power behind the throne," exerting their control through economic means. Unlike plutocracy, oligarchy is not always a rule by wealth, either, because oligarchs can simply be a privileged cadre. 

Plutocracy

Plutocracy ,from Ancient Greek ploutos, meaning "wealth", and kratos, meaning "power, rule" is rule by the wealthy, or power provided by wealth. The combination of both plutocracy and oligarchy is called plutarchy

The term plutocracy is generally used to describe these two distinct concepts: one of a historical nature and one of a modern political nature. The former indicates the political control of the state by an oligarchy of the wealthy. 

The wealthy minority may exert influence over the political arena via many methods. Most western democracies permit partisan organizations per example to raise funds for politicians, and political parties frequently accept significant donations from various individuals either directly or through corporations or advocacy groups. These donations may be part of a cronyist or patronage system, in which major contributors and fund-raisers are rewarded with high-ranking government appointments. Politicians have a personal interest in serving the needs of their campaign contributors: if they fail to do so, those contributors will likely give their money to candidates who do support their interests in the future. Unless a quid pro quo agreement exists, it is generally legal for politicians to advocate policies favorable to their contributors, or grant appointed government positions to them. In some systems there are also mechanisms of patronage. The UK, for example, uses a variety of means to reward individuals that hold the same values or interests. These include honours such as medals and honorary titles.

In some instances, extremely wealthy individuals have financed their own political campaigns. Many corporations and business interest groups pay lobbyists to maintain constant contact with elected officials, and press them for favorable legislation. Owners of mass media outlets, and the advertisement buyers which financially support them can shape public perception of political issues by controlling the information available to the population and the manner in which it is presented

In modern times, as today we are rooted in state-corporate capitalism and the prioritization of endless accumulation of wealth and warfare over other interests, like public health, education, or the environment. Western governments are plutocracies,  a fusion of money 

and government.  


©Ts  (some excerpts from Wikipedia)